1.
Amsterdam
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Amsterdam is the capital and most populous municipality of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. Its status as the capital is mandated by the Constitution of the Netherlands, although it is not the seat of the government, which is The Hague. Amsterdam has a population of 851,373 within the city proper,1,351,587 in the urban area, the city is located in the province of North Holland in the west of the country. The metropolitan area comprises much of the part of the Randstad, one of the larger conurbations in Europe. Amsterdams name derives from Amstelredamme, indicative of the citys origin around a dam in the river Amstel, during that time, the city was the leading centre for finance and diamonds. In the 19th and 20th centuries the city expanded, and many new neighborhoods and suburbs were planned, the 17th-century canals of Amsterdam and the 19–20th century Defence Line of Amsterdam are on the UNESCO World Heritage List. As the commercial capital of the Netherlands and one of the top financial centres in Europe, Amsterdam is considered a world city by the Globalization. The city is also the capital of the Netherlands. Many large Dutch institutions have their headquarters there, and seven of the worlds 500 largest companies, including Philips and ING, are based in the city. In 2012, Amsterdam was ranked the second best city to live in by the Economist Intelligence Unit and 12th globally on quality of living for environment, the city was ranked 3rd in innovation by Australian innovation agency 2thinknow in their Innovation Cities Index 2009. The Amsterdam seaport to this day remains the second in the country, famous Amsterdam residents include the diarist Anne Frank, artists Rembrandt van Rijn and Vincent van Gogh, and philosopher Baruch Spinoza. The Amsterdam Stock Exchange, the oldest stock exchange in the world, is located in the city center. After the floods of 1170 and 1173, locals near the river Amstel built a bridge over the river, the earliest recorded use of that name is in a document dated October 27,1275, which exempted inhabitants of the village from paying bridge tolls to Count Floris V. This allowed the inhabitants of the village of Aemstelredamme to travel freely through the County of Holland, paying no tolls at bridges, locks, the certificate describes the inhabitants as homines manentes apud Amestelledamme. By 1327, the name had developed into Aemsterdam, Amsterdam is much younger than Dutch cities such as Nijmegen, Rotterdam, and Utrecht. In October 2008, historical geographer Chris de Bont suggested that the land around Amsterdam was being reclaimed as early as the late 10th century. This does not necessarily mean there was already a settlement then, since reclamation of land may not have been for farming—it may have been for peat. Amsterdam was granted city rights in either 1300 or 1306, from the 14th century on, Amsterdam flourished, largely from trade with the Hanseatic League
2.
Bilthoven
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Bilthoven is a village in the Dutch province of Utrecht. It is a part of the municipality of De Bilt and it has a railway station with connections to Utrecht, Amersfoort and Baarn. It is home to the Netherlands National Institute for Public Health and the Environment, RIVM, and to the Union Mundial pro Interlingua, UMI, the statistical area Bilthoven, which also can include the surrounding countryside, has a population of around 17560. The history of the town back to 20 August 1843. A station was placed at the junction of the line with the Soestdijkseweg. Initially the Dutch railways did not plan a station on this spot, around 1900, the first villas appeared round the new station. The train traffic to and from the new station increased strongly at the time, in 1902. As a result of rail connection with the city, and the fact that the land nearby was relatively cheap. At this time the name of the town was still Bilt-station, but since it was not just a station anymore, several names were presented, among which Bilt-Buiten, the Biltwijk and the Leyen. Eventually the name Biltsche Duinen was chosen, however, this name was not accepted by the Dutch railway company. For this reason, on 11 October 1917 another Council meeting was dedicated to the naming of the village, at this Council meeting several names were discussed, such as Leyenhoven, Bilt-Hoog and the Bilthof. The majority of the Council eventually agreed to the name of Bilthoven, the founding meetings of all three groups took place at the home of Kees and Betty Boeke. The experimental school De Werkplaats Kindergemeenschap, founded by Kees Boeke, has based in Bilthoven since 1926. The former Dutch Queen Beatrix went to this school
3.
Netherlands
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The Netherlands, also informally known as Holland is the main constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It is a densely populated country located in Western Europe with three territories in the Caribbean. The European part of the Netherlands borders Germany to the east, Belgium to the south, and the North Sea to the northwest, sharing borders with Belgium, the United Kingdom. The three largest cities in the Netherlands are Amsterdam, Rotterdam and The Hague, Amsterdam is the countrys capital, while The Hague holds the Dutch seat of parliament and government. The port of Rotterdam is the worlds largest port outside East-Asia, the name Holland is used informally to refer to the whole of the country of the Netherlands. Netherlands literally means lower countries, influenced by its low land and flat geography, most of the areas below sea level are artificial. Since the late 16th century, large areas have been reclaimed from the sea and lakes, with a population density of 412 people per km2 –507 if water is excluded – the Netherlands is classified as a very densely populated country. Only Bangladesh, South Korea, and Taiwan have both a population and higher population density. Nevertheless, the Netherlands is the worlds second-largest exporter of food and agricultural products and this is partly due to the fertility of the soil and the mild climate. In 2001, it became the worlds first country to legalise same-sex marriage, the Netherlands is a founding member of the EU, Eurozone, G-10, NATO, OECD and WTO, as well as being a part of the Schengen Area and the trilateral Benelux Union. The first four are situated in The Hague, as is the EUs criminal intelligence agency Europol and this has led to the city being dubbed the worlds legal capital. The country also ranks second highest in the worlds 2016 Press Freedom Index, the Netherlands has a market-based mixed economy, ranking 17th of 177 countries according to the Index of Economic Freedom. It had the thirteenth-highest per capita income in the world in 2013 according to the International Monetary Fund, in 2013, the United Nations World Happiness Report ranked the Netherlands as the seventh-happiest country in the world, reflecting its high quality of life. The Netherlands also ranks joint second highest in the Inequality-adjusted Human Development Index, the region called Low Countries and the country of the Netherlands have the same toponymy. Place names with Neder, Nieder, Nether and Nedre and Bas or Inferior are in use in all over Europe. They are sometimes used in a relation to a higher ground that consecutively is indicated as Upper, Boven, Oben. In the case of the Low Countries / the Netherlands the geographical location of the region has been more or less downstream. The geographical location of the region, however, changed over time tremendously
4.
Roman law
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The historical importance of Roman law is reflected by the continued use of Latin legal terminology in many legal systems influenced by it. After the dissolution of the Western Roman Empire, the Roman law remained in effect in the Eastern Roman Empire, from the 7th century onward, the legal language in the East was Greek. Roman law also denotes the legal system applied in most of Western Europe until the end of the 18th century, in Germany, Roman law practice remained in place longer under the Holy Roman Empire. Roman law thus served as a basis for legal practice throughout Western continental Europe, as well as in most former colonies of these European nations, including Latin America, English and North American common law were influenced also by Roman law, notably in their Latinate legal glossary. Eastern Europe was also influenced by the jurisprudence of the Corpus Juris Civilis, especially in such as medieval Romania which created a new system. Also, Eastern European law was influenced by the Farmers Law of the medieval Byzantine legal system. g and it is believed that Roman Law is rooted in the Etruscan religion, emphasising ritual. The first legal text is the Law of the Twelve Tables, terentilius Arsa, proposed that the law should be written, in order to prevent magistrates from applying the law arbitrarily. In 451 BC, according to the story, ten Roman citizens were chosen to record the laws. While they were performing this task, they were given political power. In 450 BC, the decemviri produced the laws on ten tablets, a second decemvirate is said to have added two further tablets in 449 BC. The new Law of the Twelve Tables was approved by the peoples assembly, modern scholars tend to challenge the accuracy of Roman historians. They generally do not believe that a second decemvirate ever took place, the decemvirate of 451 is believed to have included the most controversial points of customary law, and to have assumed the leading functions in Rome. Furthermore, the question on the Greek influence found in the early Roman Law is still much discussed, many scholars consider it unlikely that the patricians sent an official delegation to Greece, as the Roman historians believed. Instead, those scholars suggest, the Romans acquired Greek legislations from the Greek cities of Magna Graecia, the original text of the Twelve Tables has not been preserved. The tablets were probably destroyed when Rome was conquered and burned by the Gauls in 387 BC, the fragments which did survive show that it was not a law code in the modern sense. It did not provide a complete and coherent system of all applicable rules or give legal solutions for all possible cases, rather, the tables contained specific provisions designed to change the then-existing customary law. Although the provisions pertain to all areas of law, the largest part is dedicated to private law, many laws include Lex Canuleia, Leges Licinae Sextiae, Lex Ogulnia, and Lex Hortensia. Another important statute from the Republican era is the Lex Aquilia of 286 BC, however, Romes most important contribution to European legal culture was not the enactment of well-drafted statutes, but the emergence of a class of professional jurists and of a legal science
5.
Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
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Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam is a university in Amsterdam, Netherlands, founded in 1880. VU is one of two large, publicly funded universities in the city, the other being the University of Amsterdam. The literal translation of the Dutch name Vrije Universiteit is Free University. Free refers to independence of the university from both the State and Church, both within and outside the university, the institution is commonly referred to as the VU. Although founded as an institution, VU has received government funding on a parity basis with public universities since 1970. Over the past decades, VU has transformed from an institution into a broad. While the Netherlands does not have a ranking system, according to the CWTS Leiden Ranking. The university is located on an urban campus in the southern Buitenveldert neighbourhood of Amsterdam. In 2014, VU had 23,656 registered students, most of whom were full-time students and that year, the university had 2,263 faculty members and researchers, and 1,410 administrative, clerical and technical employees, based on FTE units. The universitys annual endowment for 2014 was circa €480 million, about three quarters of this endowment is government funding, the remainder is made up of tuition fees, research grants, and private funding. The official university seal is entitled The Virgin in the Garden, in 1990, the university adopted the mythical griffin as its common emblem. The position of its wings symbolizes the freedom in the name from both the State and Church. The bright and blue postmodern symbol has been the point of the universitys Main Building ever since. The VU was founded in 1880 by a group of orthodox-Protestant Christians led by Abraham Kuyper as the first orthodox-Protestant university in the Netherlands, Kuyper was a theologian, journalist, politician, and prime minister of the Netherlands from 1901 to 1905. He was a professor of theology at VU as well as the universitys first rector magnificus, kuypers worldview and philosophy is referred to as Neo-Calvinism. As a reflection of his beliefs, Vrije Universiteit literally means Free University to signify independence from government and church. Teaching at the Vrije Universiteit started in 1880 in a few rooms rented at the Scottish Missionary Church, here, Kuyper and four fellow professors began lecturing in three faculties, theology, law, and the arts. By the turn of the 20th century, the Scottish Missionary Church became too small for the number of students. In the following years, the university acquired more buildings throughout the city, in 1905, VU was formally accredited and granted the legal right to award academic degrees
6.
Rector (academia)
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A rector is a term used in non-English-speaking countries for a university chancellor. In the sphere of academia, it is the highest academic official of universities and in certain other institutions of higher education. The term and office of a rector are called a rectorate, the title is used widely in universities in Europe. And is very common in Latin American countries and it is also used in Brunei, Turkey, Russia, Pakistan, the Philippines, Indonesia, Israel and the Middle East. In some universities, the title is phrased in an even loftier manner and this term is generally not used in English-speaking countries. In England and elsewhere in Great Britain, the head of a university is referred to as a chancellor. This pattern has been followed in the Commonwealth, the United States, in Scotland, many universities are headed by a chancellor, with the Lord Rector designated as an elected representative of students at the head of the university court. The head of a university in Germany is called a president, rector magnificus or rectrix magnifica, in Dutch universities, the rector magnificus is the most publicly prominent member of the board, responsible for the scientific agenda of the university. In the Netherlands, the rector is, however, not the chair of the university board, the chair has, in practice, the most influence over the management of the University. In some countries, including Germany, the position of teacher in secondary schools is also designated as rector. In the Netherlands, the rector and conrector are used commonly for high school directors. This is also the case in some Maltese secondary schools, in the Scandinavian countries, the head of a university or a gymnasium is called a rektor. In Sweden and Norway, this term is used for the heads of primary schools. For example, in Portugal, the rector of the University of Coimbra, the heads of Czech universities are called the rektor. The rector acts in the name of the university and decides the universitys affairs unless prohibited by law, the rector is nominated by the University Academic Senate and appointed by the President of the Czech Republic. The nomination must be agreed by a majority of all senators. The vote to elect or repeal a rector is secret, the term of office is four years and a person may hold it for at most two consecutive terms. The rector appoints vice-rectors, who act as deputies to the extent the Rector determines, Rectors salaries are determined directly by the Minister of Education
7.
King's Commissioner
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The King’s Commissioner is the head of a province in the Netherlands, and is chairman of both the Provincial Council and the Provincial Executive, but has a right to vote only in the latter. When the reigning monarch is a female, the office is Queens Commissioner, there are two levels of local government in the Netherlands, the provinces and the municipalities. The twelve provinces form the tier of administration between central government and the municipalities, the three tiers are organised in largely the same way, with a directly elected parliament, which in turn chooses the executive branch, headed by an appointed chairman. At the national and municipal levels, these are the king, the King’s Commissioner is not elected by the residents of the province, but appointed by the Dutch Crown, for a term of six years, which may be extended by a second term. The King’s Commissioner can be dismissed only by the Dutch Crown, when a vacancy arises, the provincial council gives the Minister of the Interior a profile of the kind of candidate it would like to see in the job. Although all King’s Commissioners are prominent members of one or another of the national political parties. The Kings Commissioners play a role within the administration and are the official representatives of central government in the provinces. They coordinate disaster management and prevention and pay regular visits to the municipalities in their region. The Kings Commissioners play an important part in the appointment of municipal mayors, when a vacancy arises, the Kings Commissioner first asks the municipal council for its views as to a successor, then writes to the Minister of the Interior, recommending a candidate. Since the Kings Commissioners are both the chairs and full members of the executives, they may include some of the executives tasks in their portfolio. They also oversee the official apparatus and any provincial utilities and represent the province in its dealings with business, in the Dutch province of Limburg, the King’s Commissioner is usually called Gouverneur, as in Belgium. Similarly, the Provinciehuis at Maastricht is called Gouvernement and this local custom arose from the particular status of the province in the nineteenth century. The official name of the office is currently the same as in the other provinces
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