Shaping Institutions

This chapter focuses on the period of the French Revolution, which saw a greater emphasis on the creation of police institutions and particularly fostered developments in political policing designed to check any one or any group that appeared to threaten the state. The revolution, the wars, and the politics of the period helped to shape the police institutions of Europe for the generations that spanned the end of the eighteenth and the beginning of the nineteenth centuries. They also contributed to the extension of what the French term haute police and which, in 1841, had its essence defined by a prefect as ‘everything related to the security of the king and of the state and also related to public spirit, opinions manifested, news that circulates as it arrives, and the men known to be opposed to the government’. Successive regimes in France—revolutionary, Napoleonic, Restoration—developed political police to investigate internal and external threats; opponents of the French acted similarly. Political police were developed to cope with threats to what increasingly resembled the modern state, and so too were ideas and practices regarding police who could prevent crime in the streets and countryside. At the same time, popular policing and the victim’s or community’s investigations and pursuits still continued, as did victim and community discretion about how to treat a suspect.

The National Library of Lithuania: Lively, innovative and creative

We live in a constantly transforming society, and, therefore, the Martynas Mažvydas National Library of Lithuania, which celebrated its centenary last year, is also constantly transforming. By adapting to constant change, we continue our core mission, which in today’s digital age is to preserve and manage what has been created in this country over the centuries. We are actively developing a unique library model, live library. In other words, it is the living space of living people. Our field of activity is very wide. We are not only the custodians of the national documentary treasure but also a cultural institution, open to all, a scientific library and a parliamentary library that cultivates community, public spirit and democracy. Never before has the National Library been as popular, needed and even as fashionable as it is today. We work to meet the professional, intellectual and spiritual needs of today’s people, whether they are library visitors, readers, employees, partners or just those who want to improve themselves.

The Didactics of Archaeological Landscape

The object of the Staffora Valley Project is to reconstruct the landscape of the area beyond the river Po in the province of Pavia, during Roman days. While promoting a debate about the Romanization of this territory, the project facilitated the popularization of an archeology of the landscape, meant to foster civics and public spirit. Through a series of archaeology workshops, students of the Lower Staffora Valley discovered the history of their territory, learning to preserve, respect, and appreciate its traditional farming vocation. This experience resonated with families, associations, and public institutions, gradually fostering an awareness for their surroundings, an indispensable basis for responsible land use. Thus, archaeology becomes a privileged path to educate a community to think in terms of history: a guarantee of mindful living, preventing speculation and any other pursuit that may destroy local traditions and alter the balance between economic needs and the quality of life.

Europa der Regionen

The purpose of this study is to examine whether it is possible to define the term “regions” and their legal competences in European law. There are important reasons for dealing with this topic. For some years, the consent on integration in Europe has been declining perceptibly. It is worrying how current tendencies of destabilisation unsettle the peoples of Europe, change their legal systems and remove states from the Union. European society, which is becoming increasingly diverse, will have to find a new consent on how to regulate its cohabitation if it wants to remain together in one European Union. Therefore, besides the trend to individualisation, the desire for an identity, in a sense of a new „public spirit“, plays an important role. This tendency concerns the regions with legislative competences directly. The connection between individualistic and public interests starts with topics, which have their roots in regional matters. This study tries to find answers to questions on the future of regionality in Europe.