Austria, Estonia, Italy, Slovenia

Book excerpt: This is the first of a series of national reports on basic issues concerning the acquisition and loss of ownership of movable assets. The series is planned to cover 27 European legal systems, distributed over six volumes, as a product of the research activities of the working group "Transfer of Movables" within the "Study Group on a European Civil Code". Starting with general property law issues like the concepts of ownership and possession employed in the respective legal systems, and the related means of protection, the reports primarily deal with the "derivative" transfer of ownership, but extend to good faith acquisition from a non-owner, acquisitive prescription, processing and commingling, and further related issues. The reports provide the reader with detailed information about the respective rules, case law and legal literature, prepared by national property law experts. These reports are a starting point for further comparative research in property law and also a tool for practitioners searching for information on foreign legal systems. Where available and as far as reasonable, the reports include translations of the most important statutory provisions either in the text or in an annex. All reports include a table of literature and a table of abbreviations, which shall facilitate carrying out further research.