This book is the product of research carried out over the last nine years. I began researching property rights in securities in 1997 when I first arrived in England to study at the University of Oxford.

I have since then completed my Habilitation on this topic which was published in German in 2004. In that book, I advance a theory seeking to explain the proprietary dimensions of securities in German and Austrian law.

In this book, I approach the topic from a comparative perspective. The book has three aims. First, it aims to explain the relevant English law to readers with a civil law background, and the relevant German and Austrian law to readers with a common law background. Second, it aims to make a novel contribution to the debate as to whether legal systems are converging or developing in a path-dependent manner. Third, it expresses a view on how the law relating to property rights in securities can be harmonised across jurisdictions.

I am much indebted to my academic mentors, Paul L. Davies and Peter Doralt, without the support of whom this book and the earlier German volume would have never been written. I am also very grateful to Joanna Benjamin who knows more about the subject than I ever shall and who is an inspiring and very personable colleague at the London School of Economics.