Editorial Foreword

A long time ago, at one of the opening ceremonies of the academic year, the Rector of the Iasi University said that the main characteristic of this institution is that it had been a European academic institution. His concern was not so much about the geographic location, although it is a feature which could be a right one. At that time - it was much before World War II - our University was the most Eastern European academic institution. Actually, he thought about the whole intellectual view and the fundamental principles of this university as being European, i.e. its roots had been nurtured and developed in the same great cultural tradition, and its modern shape was the outcome of the same Humboldtian idea of a university unity of research and education and academic freedom.