Teaching law in Dutch colonial Indonesia

The first relates to the entangled history of legal education in a colonial context, by focusing on the history of the ‘Rechtshogeschool’ in Batavia. This was a faculty of law in Dutch colonial Indonesia, which provided education formally on par with the Dutch system. Research into the school, and how a new sense of law emerged from these interactions between and amongst students and professors, adds to a growing body of literature on the practical functioning of law in the colonial context and how it was from this entanglement that new ideas emerged.

Who belongs to Europe?

The second relates to the European Convention, and how it functioned beyond Europe. European law or indeed European human rights have been thought of being confined to ‘Europe’. Recently, academics have expanded the scope, but there remains a world to win in this regard. This research will focus on the questions of who belonged to Europe and how that was a choice surrounded by fierce contestations – with legal consequences for present day on who can claim human rights protection under the European system.

In 2023, Hommes completed his PhD with the dissertation; 'Co-creating European human rights: How the Netherlands received and shaped the European Convention on Human Rights, 1945-2022'. He is involved in the teaching of EU law on Bachelor and Master level as well as Legal History and Human Rights.