. This paper shows that the subtyping relation of a higherorder lambda calculus, F ! , is anti-symmetric. It exhibits the rst such proof, establishing in the process that the subtyping relation is a partial order|reexive, transitive, and anti-symmetric up to -equality. While a subtyping relation is reexive and transitive by denition, anti-symmetry is a derived property. The result, which may seem obvious to the nonexpert, is technically challenging, and had been an open problem for almost a decade. In this context, typed operational semantics for subtyping oers a powerful new technology to solve the problem: of particular importance is our extended rule for the well-formedness of types with head variables. The paper also gives a presentation of F ! without a relation for -equality, apparently the rst such, and shows its equivalence with the traditional presentation. 1 Introduction Object-oriented programming languages such as Smalltalk, C++, Modula 3, and ...