Gerard van Hamel

Gerard Anton van Hamel (1842-1917) was a Dutch jurist, criminologist and politician who taught criminal law and served in the Dutch parliament during his career in the Netherlands. In 1889 he joined the German jurist Franz von Liszt and the Belgian jurist Adolphe Prins in founding the International Union of Criminal Law (Internationale Kriminalistische Vereinigung), an organization that promoted the view of crime as a social phenomenon requiring differentiated, purpose-driven punishment rather than uniform retribution. Van Hamel wrote and lectured internationally on the union's work and on the modern, sociologically informed direction he believed criminal law should take, helping carry the union's ideas beyond continental Europe.