The VIth World Congress of Anaesthesiology, held in Mexico City in 1976, offered several European participants the opportunity of discovering their community of views. The idea was then launched of establishing a forum for regular exchanges among academic anaesthetists from Europe. After many preliminary discussions, some thirty delegates or observers from the Societies of Anaes thesia of Austria, Belgium, Finland, France, German Federal Re public, Greece, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Spain, Switzerland, United Kingdom and Yugoslavia met in Paris on 12 March 1977. They agreed to found a European Academy of Anaesthesiology. After a second meeting in Dublin, the Academy was officially created by a general assembly in Paris on 5 Septem ber 1978. Election of members took place for the first time on that date. Since then, the Academy has been functioning regular ly. Its membership presently stands at 180 from 26 European countries. Associate members will be elected for the first time this year. The total number of full members is limited by the statutes to five hundred. The Academy also has two other categories of members: hon orary and patrons. Five honorary members have so far been elec ted: Mrs. N. du Bouchet (France), Mr. H. Killian (German Federal Republic), Sir Robert Macintosh, Prof. W. W. Mushin (United King dom) and Dr. E. M. Papper (United States)."

J.F. Crul The topic Legal Aspects of Anaesthesia is still rarely treated in book publications, but deserves increasing attention as more cases of litigation occur each year and anaesthetists also become more aware of the legal structure within which they practice their profession. I am happy to have been able to obtain the cooperation of experts in this field from various European countries. The contributing authors in this book come from both the anaesthesia and surgery side as well as from the jurisprudential background. As these two fields have their own professional jargon we have been very careful in using definitions, avoiding that a specific term might lead to misunderstanding and confusion. The international authorship did not facilitate this task. The subject of this book was also the topic of a meeting of the European Academy of Anaesthesiology held at the French Study Center, La Suquette, Saint Vincent Ie Palue~ held three years before publication of this book. The organizers G. Barrier, J.F. Crul, and J. Lassner felt the need for a book publication presenting the state of the art of anaesthesia and the law in European countries. With the present book this plan has been realized. During the meeting many subjects were thoroughly discussed and the editor considered a number of them as very informative and therefore these were included in this book.