Significant amounts of unsaturated hydrocarbons, such as butene isomers, are formed as intermediate products during the oxidation of higher hydrocarbons. In this study, new experimental data were obtained for the oxidation of 1-butene and cis-2-butene. The experiments were conducted in a jet-stirred reactor in the temperature range of 9001440 K, at atmospheric pressure, for different equivalence ratios (0.25 <= phi <= 2), and in a combustion vessel at p = 1 atm and unburned gas temperatures in the range of 300450 K. From gas sampled in the jet-stirred reactor, concentration profiles of stable species were measured by gas chromatography and infrared spectrometry. A combustion vessel was used to determine laminar burning velocities of buteneair mixtures at atmospheric pressure and over the equivalence ratio range of 0.81.4. Additional data were obtained over a range of pressure (15 atm). A detailed chemical kinetic mechanism based on a previously proposed scheme for the oxidation of hydrocarbons was used to reproduce the present experimental data (201 species involved in 1787 reactions). The present mechanism was also tested against literature data: the structure of 1-butene premixed low pressure flat flames and 1-butene/oxygen/argon mixtures ignition delays were simulated, showing satisfactory agreement. Sensitivity analyses and reaction paths analyses were used to rationalize the results. Finally, the oxidations of cis-2-butene and trans-2-butene were compared and discussed.