Guido Alpa, FBA, is Professor of Civil Law at the University of Rome ‘La Sapienza.’ He is presently the Chairman of the Italian Law Society (Consiglio Nazionale Forense) and has been a member of numerous government committees on legislative reform. He is a member of European Civil Code Steering Committee and serves on the boards of a number of European law reform groups and commissions. He has authored or edited over one hundred books, case-books, treatises, and hand-books on practically all aspects of private law and many topics of legal theory. Among his latest publications is the Introduction to European Private Law (with Mads Andenas, Giuffrè 2006)Vincenzo Zeno-Zencovich is Professor of Comparative Law in the University of Roma Tre. He has written extensively in the fields of European private law, torts, consumer law, media and ICT law. Among his latest publications is a book on freedom of expression (Il Mulino 2004) and commentaries on the Privacy Code (edited with F. Cardarelli and R. Sica, Giuffrè 2005) and digital television (edited with A. Frignani and E. Poddighe, Giuffrè 2006).

• 1. Introductory Concepts 2. Natural Persons 3. The Family and Succession 4. Intermediate Communities 5. Business and Companies 6. Property and Goods 7. Transactions and Contracts 8. Wrongful Acts and Civil Liability 9. Protection of Rights