Bastiaan D. van der Velden (1970) obtained his PhD in 2004 with a dissertation on the historical development of legislation on the use of Frisian in the Netherlands (Waar gaan wij heen met het Fries?). From 2006 to 2009 he was associate professor at the University of the Netherlands Antilles in Curaçao. His legal history of Curaçao was published in 2011: Ik lach met Grotius, en alle prullen van boeken (Amsterdam: SWP). He is currently a lecturer at the Open University where he teaches legal history and wrote a textbook for this course.