Frans Last


Frans Friedrich Ludwig Ulrich Last was a Dutch jurist who served as Attorney General at the Supreme Court of the Dutch East Indies.

Biography

Frans Last was born in Elmina to colonial administrator Friedrich Last and the Euro-African innkeeper Elisabeth Atteveld. He grew up in Kampen, where he lived with his stepmother Petronella Johanna Aleida van Vlierden.
Frans Last gained a doctorate at the University of Groningen on 8 November 1845, and was on 31 December 1848 appointed official first class in the Dutch East Indies, and subsequently installed as court clerk at the Moving Court on Java. On 26 May 1858, Frans Last was appointed judge at the Supreme Court of the Dutch East Indies.
Frans Last published a compendium of Dutch East Indies law in 1860, and a revised second edition in 1872. In 1866, Last was instructed to draft a penal code for natives and non-Europeans in the Dutch East Indies, based on the penal code for Europeans adopted in 1866. Last was not convinced of his mandate however, and argued in a letter to the Governor-General that the penal code for Europeans, which in turn was based on the Napoleonic French penal code, was unsuitable for implementation in Javanese society. As a consequence, Last was relieved of his duty in 1868.
Frans Last died in The Hague at age 60.

Decoration

Frans Last married Ida Catharina Wilhelmina Elisabeth Carlier.
A carte de visite of Frans Last can be found in the photoalbum of John F. Loudon, which is kept in the print room of Leiden University.