After graduating with a degree in Law (LLB) from the University of Amsterdam, Auke successfully completed an LLM in International Law at the University of Edinburgh, in which he focused on international criminal law and wrote his dissertation on the EU-US Extradition Agreement under supervision of Professor Bill Gilmore. He then went to the University of Glasgow, where he wrote his LLM by research thesis on the topic of European criminal law under supervision of Maria Fletcher and Professor Noreen Burrows. Since January 2013, Auke is working as a PhD-researcher at the IES, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, under supervison of Professor Paul de Hert and Anne Weyembergh (ULB). Auke's PhD research has focussed on the principle of mutual trust within EU mutual recognition based criminal justice cooperation. In this project it is being examined what mutual trust is in the EU criminal justice context, and how mutual trust between EU Member States can be fostered. An important aspect of the study is a comparison with criminal justice cooperation between states in the USA, as well as a multi-disciplinary study of the concept of trust. Auke has carried out parts of his research as a visiting student at BabeÈ™-Bolyai University (2013); wrote the comparative component of his thesis as a Visiting Doctoral Researcher at Columbia University Law School (2014-2015); and conducted research into EU constitutional law at the European University Institute in Florence.

He focused on international criminal law.