this paper we present new proofs of cut elimination for intuitionistic and classical sequent calculi and give their representations in the logical framework LF [HHP93] as implemented in the Elf system [Pfe91]. Multi-sets are avoided altogether in these proofs, and termination measures are replaced by three nested structural inductions. Parameters are treated as variables bound in derivations, thus naturally capturing occurrence conditions. A starting point for the proofs is Kleene's sequent system G 3 [Kle52], which we derive systematically from the point of view that a sequent calculus should be a calculus of proof search for natural deductions. It can easily be related to Gentzen's original and other sequent calculi. We augment G 3 with proof terms that are stable under weakening. These proof terms enable the structural induction and furthermore form the basis of the representation of the proof in LF. The most closely related work on cut elimination is Martin-Lo# f 's proof of admissibility [ML68]. In Martin-Lo# f 's system the cut rule incorporates aspects of both weakening and contraction which enables a structural induction argument closely related to ours. However, without the introduction of proof terms, the implicit weakening in the cut rule makes it difficult to implement this proof directly. Herbelin [Her95] restates this proof and proceeds by assigning proof terms only to restricted sequent calculi LJT and LKT which correspond more immediately to