  Our knowledge of quark-flavor physics and CP violation increased tremendously
over the past five years. It is confirmed that the Standard Model correctly
describes the dominant parts of the observed CP-violating and flavor-changing
phenomena. Not only does CP violation provide some of the most precise
constraints on the flavor sector, but several measurements performed at the
B-factories achieved much better precision than had been expected. We review
the present status of the Cabibbo-Kobayashi-Maskawa matrix and CP violation,
recollect the relevant experimental and theoretical inputs, display the results
from the global CKM fit, and discuss their implications for the Standard Model
and some of its extensions.
