A Short Review of Doctoral Theses on the Netherlands-Indies Accepted at the Faculty of Law of Leiden University in the Period 1850-1940

Abstract

The study of colonial legal literature has generally been neglected in the postcolonial period in Indonesia. Various reasons underlie this neglect, the main one probably being the view that, since colonialism evidently is a bad thing, the same goes for the law through which the colonial state effected its policies. Other reasons are that it is generally felt to be discriminatory, foreign, and progressively out of step with the modern needs of the country. Furthermore, the role of the Dutch language rapidly declined, notably after 1959, and the younger generation of jurists began to lose Dutch. Since then, pressure in the Indonesian political elite to break with the colonial legal system has been consistent and strong. It is understandable that in this climate the role of colonial legal literature progressively declined.