The Theory of Stufenbau in Focus: Load-bearing Capacity and Heuristic Value. The Theory of Stufenbau has been and continues to be the subject of numerous scientific treatises. Opinions on its content and load-bearing capacity within legal discourse diverge significantly. This monograph offers a new approach to the Theory of Stufenbau by breaking it down to its foundations, thereby enabling concrete statements about the relationship of local police regulations to other legal acts within the Austrian legal system. The starting point is a more differentiated categorization, in which the various manifestations of the Stufenbau model are compared. The aim of the work is to precisely articulate the conceptual tools of the Theory of Stufenbau and, based on that, to classify local police regulations within the framework of norms of the Austrian legal system. In doing so, the question of the load-bearing capacity and heuristic value of the Theory of Stufenbau is addressed.