Is there something like a is_specialization in Boost.Traits? Something like: template <typename TypeT, template<typename> class TemplateTypeT> struct is_specialization { private: template <typename T> static char foo( TemplateTypeT<T>* ); static int foo( ... ); public: enum { value = (sizeof(is_specialization::foo((TypeT*)0)) == sizeof(char)) } ; }; It's very limited since it only supports a specific number of template arguments. The number of template arguments could be passed, but it would still cause problems with non-type template arguments. Any ideas? Maybe something like: BOOST_IS_SPECIALIZATION(type, templateType, signature) called like: BOOST_IS_SPECIALIZATION(myType, std::list, (typename, typename)) Regards, Nicolas