B-meson physics: CP violation and semileptonic decays

The paper represents a review of our present knowledge on the phenomenology of weak decays of quarks and their role in the determination of the parameters of the Standard Model. Specifically, we focus on CP violation in B decays and the determination of the Cabibbo-Kobayashi-Maskawa matrix element V_cb from exclusive and inclusive semileptonic B decays. We also briefly discuss phenomeno-logical applications concerning the electron energy spectra in inclusive semileptonic B and B_c decays.