Abstract
This book is the result of a common project of the Centre for Comparative Law of Faculty of Law of the Charles University in Prague and the Institute for Austrian and European Public Law of the Vienna University of Economics and Business. The project was supported by the Ministry of Education, Youth and Physical Education of the Czech Republic and the Austrian Federal Ministry of Science, Research and Economy within the framework of Scientific and Technological Cooperation between Austria and the Czech Republic.
The project focuses on a legal notion that is found in nearly all branches of law - the abuse of law. This notion, on the one side, has certain general characteristics defining its nature and, on the other side, certain features that are typical for its presence (only) in specific branches of law.
In scientific literature the phenomenon of abuse of law has been analysed under specific aspects (e.g. practice of legal courts) and in specific fields of law (e.g. EU Law).
There is, however, no comprehensive work analysing the phenomenon in a general manner as well as identifying its particular structure in different areas of law. The purpose of this book is to fill this gap and present a scholarly work on the characterization of abuse of law in general (its nature and definition), as well as its significance in specific legal fields, including an analysis of the legal consequences of abuse of law and of the sanctions for "abusive" behaviour.
Thus, typical features of abuse of law, its characterization as a legal principle or a method of interpretation and its differences to similar concepts such as acts of circumvention are discussed in the contributions contained in this volume.