Punitive damages with reference to Austrian tort law is primarily concerned with the analysis of specific judgments from tort law with regard to Austrian as well as Community law supreme court decisions.In the first chapter, the basics of tort law in common law, especially in American tort law, are presented in order to facilitate a better understanding of the following chapters.The main focus of the thesis, as the title suggests, is on the subsumption of Austrian supreme court decisions with regard to recent damages judgments and the question of whether a model based on US punitive damages can be identified.