Louk Hulsman

Louk Hulsman (fully Lodewijk Hulsman Henri Christian, born March 8, 1923 in Kerkrade, † 28 January 2009, Dordrecht ) was a Dutch jurist and criminologist.

Life

After high school located Hulsman joined a resistance group. In 1944 he was arrested for false papers and sent to the transit camp Amersfoort, during transport to Germany he managed to escape. He returned to the Netherlands, became a soldier and fought in the last weeks of the Second World War with the Allies against Germany.

1945-1948 studied Hulsman law at Leiden University. After graduation, he worked first in the Dutch Ministry of War, then in the Ministry of Justice. Since 1963 he was Professor of Criminal Law and Criminology at the University of Economics in Rotterdam, part of the later University Rotterdam (emeritus 1986). He is one of the main authors of the influential report of the Council of Europe about the possibility of decriminalization (Council of Europe, Report on Decriminalization, Strasbourg 1980). Most recently, he taught at the Academia Vitae, a private high school in Deventer.

Louk Hulsman is, together with Herman Bianchi, Nils Christie and Thomas Mathiesen of the most important representatives of the abolitionist movement.

Works (selection)

• Louk H.C. Hulsman / Jacqueline Bernat de Celis (1982 ): Peines Perdue. Le système Criminal Procedure, s question. Paris.
• Louk H.C. Hulsman (1983 ): Abolire il sistema penale, in: Dei delitti e delle pene 1, 71-89.
• Louk H.C. Hulsman (1986 ): Critical Criminology and the Concept of Crime, in: Contemporary Crises, 10 ( 3-4), 63-80.
• Louk H.C. Hulsman (1991 ): The Abolitionist Case: Alternative Crime Policies: Israel Law Review 25 (2-4), 681-709.