PRESENTATION

The XIVth International Congress of the Society was originally scheduled  to take place towards the end of November 2001, at Ponta Delgada in the Azores.

The tragic events of 11th September in the United States, however, compelled it to be postponed, so that - with the Portuguese Group, and most notably Jorge De Figueiredo Dias still acting as hosts - it was finally held in Lisbon on 17th-19th  May 2002.

The Cahiers - which in its 2001 edition had given an advance review of the matters to be addressed at the Congress (page 159 and foll.) - are now very happy and greatly indebted once more to the financial support from the Ministry of Justice of Portugal - to highlight the enduring memories to which the Congress gave rise, through the publication of its Proceedings.

In fact this represents a broadening of the horizons, indeed a sort of transfiguration, for Cahiers, which in each case, apart from the great significance of the theme of the XIVth Congress, looking to the future and its possibilities, stand as memorial to the memory of Adolfo Beria di Argentine, to whom the Lisbon meeting and all the work transacted there serve in a way as an act of dedication. The same is true of the 2000 issue of Cahiers, saying to him, and using words of his own, that he is «encore parmi nous et avec nous». (Mario Pisani)