Luminescence spectroscopy is an important technique far the study of the coordination chemistry of the lanthanide ions in both the solution and solid state. This article concentrates on applications aimed at elucidating the coordination structure in solution phase systems, Luminescence lifetime measurements which allow the examination of the metal ion coordination environment in a wide variety of ligand systems are discussed, Tn addition, recent developments in the use of Eu(III) F-7(0)-->D-5(0), excitation spectroscopy are presented, lin the final section, the application of luminescence techniques to the examination of ligand sensitized lanthanide luminescence is reviewed briefly. (C) 1998 Elsevier science S.A. All rights reserved.