The western part of Europe has played a pivotal role in the early development of modern testing starting with the work of scholars like Alfred Binet, William Stern, and Hugo Münsterberg in the early 1900s. However, most of the experts were driven out of the country by the Nazis and the Wehrmacht psychologists who largely replaced them favored non-psychometric methods. In the more recent history after World War II, there were several successful psychometric testing programs. While the Netherlands have embraced psychometric testing since the 1950s and widely apply it in education, testing and especially psychometric methods have traditionally been less frequently used to make important decisions in Germany, France, and Belgium. A recent trend is the increasing use of testing and assessment for quality control in education especially in the Netherlands and Germany. Another more recent trend is a shift of higher education to a global level which creates a new need to assess foreign applicants for Western European institutions. This chapter focuses on the development of modern testing in the Dutch, German, and French-speaking parts of Europe (France, The Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany, most parts of Switzerland, Austria, and the South Tirol region of Italy).

This chapter examines what research falls under the epithet of ‘mixed-methods’ and discusses the main advantages of conducting mixed-methods research. The chapter introduces the key issues of mixed-methods research planning and design: that is, the tackling of ontological and epistemological challenges, the equal weighting of methods, and the sequencing of methods. The chapter also provides information regarding the analysis of data resulting from mixed-methods research, and how this can be done in a manner that provides appropriate integration. The key issues of the chapter are illustrated by means of two case studies. The first investigates attitudes towards French and English in Montreal, making use of a questionnaire and a matched-guise experiment. This case study shows how mixed-methods approaches can lead to a deeper understanding of language attitudes as part of larger social processes in a manner that no one method on its own could do. The second case study examines attitudes towards Catalan in Northern Catalonia by means of interviews and variable analysis. This case study demonstrates how mixed-methods research allows for a broader representation of the attitudinal and ideological landscape of a specific language community than could be afforded by the use of one method alone.

In France, a consolidated research ecosystem, including different national structures, has been developed to promote excellence in academic research. While research-oriented curricula are well organized at doctoral and master levels, the national policy perspective has not yet considered introducing academic research at undergraduate level. However, various initiatives exist within the institutions to encourage the participation of undergraduate students in research activities. In this chapter, we introduce some initiatives developed towards undergraduate research in the context of the French national system of education.

There was nothing new in book thefts. For centuries, booksellers, libraries and individuals have all suffered to a greater or lesser degree, and the purpose of the thefts has not necessarily been venal. In three notorious cases discussed here the motives were mixed. Consideration of Trinity College, Cambridge, Count Libri and French libraries, thefts from the Colombina library in Spain. The inadequacies of libraries in facing thefts.

This chapter makes an introduction to the key themes of the book and provides a book plan.

This chapter opens the volume’s third thematic strand (Individuals and Institutions) with an investigation into family and kinship in the age of William the Conqueror. It starts with France and the Capetian dynasty, before shifting its focus to England and the Scandinavian kingdoms of Denmark and Norway. Particular attention is paid to the period after the death of Cnut, the extended kin of Edith and Edward, and the various changes and continuities between notions of kinship in the pre-Conquest period and those in Anglo-Norman England post-1066.

This chapter opens the volume’s second thematic strand (Space and Society) with a discussion of landscape and settlement in the age of William the Conqueror. It distinguishes between landscapes of use, landscapes of settlement, and landscapes of meaning and memory, each of which it analyses in turn. Across the entire chapter, attention is paid not only to human settlement and the use and exploitation of the surrounding landscape, but also to the natural environment and the many ways in which it influenced and determined people’s lives through dynamic interaction.

This chapter concludes the volume’s third thematic strand (Individuals and Institutions) with a study of law and justice in the age of William the Conqueror. It begins by discussing the law of persons, before moving on to the law of property and the law of wrongs. The chapter’s final section is dedicated to courts and procedure and gives a sense of the practical application of these laws in Anglo-Norman society. Throughout the entire chapter, notions of continuity are contextualised with moments of change, and important attention is drawn to the socio-political dimension of the law.

This chapter introduces the volume’s first thematic strand (Home and Away) with a study of Normandy and the Continent in the age of William the Conqueror. It commences with a consideration of terminology, followed by an analysis of Normandy’s developing boundaries and the Normans’ adjustment to Christianity. The chapter then takes a comparative view of Normandy’s neighbours (Brittany, Flanders, Maine, Blois, and France) before studying the duchy’s rise as a major player in eleventh-century north-western Europe. It concludes with discussions of knightly culture, Church reform, and the influence of popes and emperors.

This chapter concludes the volume’s fourth thematic strand (Cultural Perspectives) with a study of schools and education in the age of William the Conqueror. Utilising the perspective of the long eleventh century, it scrutinises different cultures of schooling in Normandy and England and the relationships that existed between them. This is followed by a discussion on the memory of pre-Conquest English learning in post-Conquest England and a concluding case study of King Harold’s Waltham.

The third chapter in the volume’s final thematic strand (Cultural Perspectives) concerns language and literacy in the age of William the Conqueror. Following an introduction explaining the languages and linguistic developments in the cross-Channel Anglo-Norman state, the chapter casts its view broadly across Britain and beyond, before offering some considerations of the important subjects of literacy, Latinity, and genre. Detailed attention is given to questions concerning the persistence of Old English and the advent of Anglo-Norman, as well as to book production.

This chapter concludes the volume’s second thematic strand (Space and Society) with an analysis of travel and trade in the age of William the Conqueror. Focusing on dynamics of commerce and communication, it traces the movement of goods and people across eleventh-century north-western Europe. The chapter begins with an introductory discussion of trade and commerce, before turning its attention to different kinds of landscapes and road networks. This is followed by a study of inland navigation and maritime travel that ranges broadly across the north-western European landscape.

Continuing the volume’s second thematic strand (Space and Society), this chapter addresses the topic of Church and society in the age of William the Conqueror. It commences with a discussion of the Church in Normandy, before considering the corresponding situation across the Channel in England. It then develops a comparative perspective that draws attention to some fundamental issues surrounding the Anglo-Norman Church and its legacy, including William the Conqueror’s relationship with the episcopate and the Anglo-Norman monastic landscape, the importance of stability and authority, and the use of violence by and against members of the clergy.

Continuing the volume’s third thematic strand (Individuals and Institutions), this chapter studies the nobility and aristocracy in the age of William the Conqueror. The discussion begins by pointing out the importance of hierarchy and status before drawing attention to the subjects of ancestry, culture, and education amongst the elites of the cross-Channel Anglo-Norman world and their neighbours on the Continent. Following investigations of aristocratic splendour and largesse, as well as of violence and competition, it closes by taking stock of the situation on the eve of William’s conquest of England.

The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development contains a broad set of goals requiring unprecedented global commitment and cooperation between countries (United Nations, 2015d, 2015e). From the human rights perspective, the agenda reflects elements of international human rights law and offers critical opportunities to further advance the realization of human rights for all people everywhere without discrimination (OHCHR, n.d.-c). The challenge posed is to ensure that strategies and policies to implement the 2030 Agenda are effectively based on the established human rights framework. Goal 17 of the Agenda refers to strengthening the means of implementation and “revitalizing the Global Partnership for Sustainable Development.” Several targets of Goal 17 aim at the full implementation of official development assistance by developed countries, reaching certain proportions of aid relative to gross national income.

In France, the question of injunctive relief for infringement of patents has only given rise to a very limited number of academic studies.1 Although there are quite a lot of court decisions dealing with this topic, the courts generally do not explain their reasoning on this particular point. In France, patent injunctions can only be handled2 by the specialized IP chambers3 of the general jurisdictions of Paris, which are the Tribunal Judiciaire (formerly known as the Tribunal de Grande Instance) de Paris on first instance, where the judgment is generally delivered within eighteen months, and, on appeal, the Cour d’appel de Paris, where the cases are generally adjudicated within twelve months. The highest court, the Cour de cassation only deals with matters of law, and not fact.4 On average, 170 court decisions on patent litigation were delivered per year in France between 2015 and 2019.

Chapter 12 reassesses the peace conceptions and reordering and security policies of Clemenceau and the other authors of the French programme for the Paris Peace Conference. It argues that while their key aim undoubtedly was to secure France against what they saw as the critical threat of renewed German aggression they came to pursue new, essentially transatlantic strategies to this end, which came to concentrate on efforts to establish, in cooperation with Britain and the United States, a new Atlantic alliance and security community. It illuminates the underlying assumptions and rationales of the ambitious French agenda, showing that it too was significantly reorientated between the armistice and Versailles. Finally, it explores how far Clemenceau, his main adviser André Tardieu and other French policymakers had drawn constructive lessons and consequences from the catastrophe of the war – and how far their aims and strategies, which focused on containing and initially isolating postwar Germany, indeed opened up realistic perspectives of securing peace and creating a durable Atlantic and global order.