Was born in Ghent, Belgium.

She studied law and music at the University of Ghent and law and ethnology at the University of Vienna, where she became doctor of law in 1978. In 1983 she obtained an LL.M.-degree at the University of London (King's College). From 1988 to 1989 she worked as an expert (collaboratrice scientifique) at the Swiss Institute of Comparative Law in Lausanne, Switzerland under Prof. A.E. von Overbeck, director of the Institute at the time. Her habilitation-thesis on Divorce by mutual consent - A comparative analysis was approved by the Law Faculty of the University of Vienna in 1989.

From 1989 to 1992 she was assistant professor at the Institute of Comparative Law at the University of Vienna. In 1992 she was head of the "European Integration" department of the Austrian Parliament, directorate of International Affairs. This was followed by a full professorship at the Europa-University Viadrina in Frankfurt/Oder, Germany, where from 1992 to 1994 she taught Civil Law, Conflicts of Law and Comparative Law with special regard to European Integration. From 1994 to 1998 she was full professor at the University of Bielefeld, Germany, for Civil Law, Conflicts of Law, Comparative Law, European Civil Law and European Integration. In 1998 she was appointed full professor at the University of Vienna.

She was co-opted member of the Commission on Conflicts of Law, Comparative Law and European Law of the Austrian Academy of Sciences until the Commission was closed down for financial reasons in 1998. Since 1993 she has been member of the Board of the Austrian Society on Comparative Law and a co-opted member of the German Academic Association on Family Law. In 1994 she became a co-opted member of the German Society on International Law and in 1995 a member of the International Advisory Board of the International Encyclopaedia of Laws. Since 1999 she has been an Austrian delegate to the International Commission on Civil Status (Commission Internationale de l'État Civil) and is serving as its president from 2000 to 2002. Since 2002 she is Présidente honoraire of the International Commission on Civil Status. In 2000 she was elected vice-president of the International Association of Family Law. In 2002 she was elected associated member of the International Academy of Comparative Law.

She was a guest professor at the Kansas University (Lawrence, KS) in 1991, in Strasbourg (in 1992) and in Budapest (in 1993) both at the invitation of the Santa Clara University (California, USA). She was also a guest professor at the University of Salzburg in 1995, at the University of Sofia (Bulgaria) in 1996, and Visiting Fellow at the University of Oxford in 1996/97.

She has published several books and commentaries, inter alia Divorce by mutual consent - A comparative analysis (Berlin 1990). This was awarded the Prize for Humanities and Social Sciences of the City of Vienna. Her other publications include Same-sex marriages (Vienna 1994); The International Convention on the Rights of the Child (Vienna 1986); Private International Law, The General Provisions of the EGBGB, in: Böhmer/Siehr, Das Internationale Familienrecht (Neuwied 1997); Equality in Family Law (ed., Bielefeld, 1997); "Spousal support upon divorce", in: Staudinger, BGB-Kommentar (Berlin 1999); The European Union (Vienna, 2001, together with H. Neisser), as well as numerous articles in different legal journals. .