This book is a first attempt to present a broad range of aspects of Austrian law and legal culture in English for the purpose of comparison with other legal systems. Within the European Civil law tradition, Austrian law together with German and Swiss law belongs to the Germanic legal family. It shares fundamental features as well as numerous details of its legal system with the law of its neighbors, but it has also developed interesting ideas of its own. In 1995, Austria joined the European Union and thus became subject to an extensive layer of European Community law. It is fascinating to observe a process of interaction, harmonization and unification of European law, in which elements of Common and Civil law blend on the supra-national level and, at the same time, profoundly influence individual national system. In this process, Austria will not only learn from foreign legal experience, but will also have an opportunity to make cretive legal contribution to a growing body of European law.