The Fifth International Symposium on Practical Aspects of Declarative L- guages (PADL 2003) was held in New Orleans on 13-14 January 2003. It was colocatedwiththe30thAnnualACMSymposiumonPrinciplesofProgramming Languages(POPL2003). We received 57 submissions, a record for PADL. One of the strengths of PADL is that it draws papers from both sides of the declarative divide, from boththefunctionalandlogicprogrammingcommunities.Ofthe57submissions, 25werefunctionaland32werelogical, withsomenotableoverlaps. The program committee was divided on the approach to take to the con-...