‘Louk Hulsman, a perpetual garden and the absence of time'
Imagine the earth as a solid iron ball. Than picture yourself a little bird, that flies to this ball once in a century and sharpens its beak twice, by stroking the iron. By the time that earth size, solid, iron ball, has been worn out totally, not even a second of eternity has passed…
That was the answer given to a very young Louk, on his question on how long eternity lasted, when he was spending his time, much against his wishes in the catholic boarding school run by priests. The answer didn’t please him at all, and the prospect of spending such an incomprehensible period in a place, as dull as heaven was portrayed to him, seemed terribly unappetising and frankly, quite threatening.
He challenged the priests that denied him access to the Latin version of the bible, by getting hold of the forbidden text and debating with them on the inconsistencies he encountered in the dogmas, they wanted him to accept without contradiction. Later Louk would state that his imprisonment period in the concentration camp of
He was raised in the south of
All these experiences were like planted seeds that in certain periods of his life would continue to grow and shape him. It gave him a life long distrust of institutions and authorities. He studied law in Leiden, because Leiden had the only law faculty that had flatly refused to give out a non-Arian declaration about their students and personnel. The university had to face a closedown during the occupation period because of that.[1] His yearlong work for the Council of Europe was based on a solid believe that an equal position in Europe for Germany was a necessity to prevent the outbreak of more wars in Europe. In regard to the Second World War period you would never hear Louk talk about Germans, he would be very precise with his language and use words like occupiers or Nazi’s instead.
From all these seeds of experiences Louk slowly started his beautiful garden of understanding and knowledge on more humane ways of dealing with conflicts and other problematic situations. His work at the Ministry of Justice taught him not to believe in the practice of penal legislation. His work with lawyers, judges, rehabilitation and the police taught him that the theory never matches the practice and fairy tales in various professions would keep up the myth of a working criminal justice system. Finally halfway his professorship in criminology and penal law at the EUR, after reshaping the study program into a way of teaching his students that involved a variety of disciplines, his garden took a new shape. A logical consequence of all this self lived knowledge became that no matter how much you invested in this system of penal law, it was not doing what it said it did, it did not contribute in any positive way to the position of the actors involved, it caused time and again irreparable harm to all those involved and to society. Thomas Mathiesen’s work[2] opened the door to his vision on abolition of penal law. He wrote Peines Perdues with Jacqueline Bernat de Celis that has now been translated in many languages, unfortunately not yet in English but we are working on that.[3] Peines Perdues is a very clear book about an other than the accustomed view, on the functioning of the criminal justice system and tells us why we should reconsider accepting it’s assumptions and why we should always investigate and challenge them. Re-reading Peines Perdues it struck me how fresh and organic his ideas remain, even though this text was written in 1982! Louk never stopped investing in teaching, lecturing and travelling the world to incite discussions and exchanges. Very few people are aware of the total variety of his fields of interest. Tribal thinking and the societies of indigenous people had his interest and heart, as a learning process on how in other settings people deal with their societal difficulties. Louk was part of many congresses and lectures dedicated to restorative justice. He lectured and shared the annual program on victimology in Dubrovnik and is widely known for his knowledge and support on decriminalisation of drugs, he was part of Defense Social, ICOPA and Gern.[4]
Since the European Group was home to him, many of you would know a lot about Louk’s life, though I found that we rarely truly know somebody, even the ones so close to us, until we share our knowledge and experiences and thereby complete the picture. Louk has been relentlessly sowing new seeds, thinking authentic thoughts and sharing them. He has touched many here present, because he cared, was always willing to listen to you and when the occasion presented itself loved to enter a debate. Louk thrived on discussions and forewarned, forearmed, when you saw that smile forming around the corners of his mouth, you could know that you were in trouble; he was an incomparable debater. Many here today, if not convinced that the criminal justice system should be abolished, have been changed by these discussions, because he made you rethink what you thought you knew. His own life, to the very end, was an adventure that he did not want to miss; even death was a part of that. He was always willing to truly investigate a new insight he was confronted with. His truly most remarkable capacity was that, even knowing the devastating harm that the institutions within the criminal justice system are causing, he would still be able to single out the people inside of those same systems, recognise their humanity and would be able to connect to them and shift their views by making a personal contact. Louk always believed in the possibility of a change for the better, he believed in people.
His garden was a sanctuary, nature the healing ground. Whenever he could not resolve what needed resolving, plants, the earth, birds, flowers, clouds, light, skies would restore the harmony. He has given to us more than enough seeds in thoughts and articles to continue his gardening and together we can bring many of these seeds to life and make them bloom. Despite of the current sorry state of the repressive penal climate, Louk was quietly confident that a change will come; he as a gardener knew that the discouraging winter image of nature was balanced by the preparation of a new spring, deeply hidden under the soil and in the still barren branches. That change is like the seed that can lie idle, waiting, but will awake to the right touch, it is just a matter of us caring to give the right attention, circumstances and the arrival of the right flow of momentum, time…
It was a special evening when the monk stepped out of his monastery to enjoy the gardens. Suddenly he stopped in his tracks because he heard the most beautiful music: a nightingale’s song. Captivated, he stayed there and could not move for fear of losing the essence of this unique, deeply moving experience. How much time he stayed there, he didn’t know, but when he stepped back into the monastery, he was surprised to discover he did not know any of the monks living there. In fact centuries had passed while the monk had been caught in the spell of the birds song. ‘ Ah’ said Louk, ‘now that is eternity, it is the very absence of time… ‘
Jehanne Hulsman (j.hulsman5@chello.nl)
[1] The Dean, Cleveringa, who held a speech was arrested, so were the student leaders of the consequential strike.
[2] Mathiesen, T. (1974) The Politics of Abolition, London: Martin Robertson.
[3] Louk Hulsman, Jacqueline Bernat de Celis, Peines Perdues, le systeme pénal en question, Paris: Le Centurion 1982.
[4] La Société Internationale de Défense Sociale (www.defensesociale.org), Groupe Européenne de Recherche sur les Normativités (www.gern-cnrs.com); ICOPA (www.justiceaction.org); Association Internationale de Victimologie (<pagesperso-orange.fr>).