Colour deconfinement in nuclear collisions

QCD predicts that strongly interacting matter will undergo a transition fro m a state of hadronic constituents to a plasma of unbound quarks and gluons . We first survey the conceptual features of this transition and its descri ption in finite temperature lattice QCD, before we address its experimental investigation through high energy nucleus-nucleus collisions. After survey ing the conditions achievable in such collisions, we discuss the possible p robes to check if the produced medium in its early stages was indeed deconf ined. We then elaborate the method that has emerged and the results which w ere obtained using the most extensively studied deconfinement probe, the su ppression of charmonium production. In closing, we discuss possible corrobo rative information provided through the study of soft hadronic probes.