The South Moluccas - Rebellious
Province or Occupied State
(The legal position according to
international law)
by Gesina H. J. van der Molen
A short biography of Gesina H. J. Van der Molen
Dr. Gesina Hermina Johanna van der Molen was born at Baflo, in
the province of Groningen, The Netherlands, on 20th January 1892
and trained to be a school teacher. Afterwards she studied law at
the Vrije Universiteit (i.e. Denominational University),
popularly referred to as VU, in Amsterdam, where she passed her
final examination for a degree in 1929.
She took her doctor's degree at the VU in 1937 on a thesis
entitled Alberico Gentili and the Development of International
Law.
For several years she was on the staff of De Amsterdammer and De
Standaard, Amsterdam daily papers.
She wrote a number of articles in periodicals and delivered
numerous speeches on international law, the peace movement,
women's interests (e.g. marriage law), etc.
She was on the editorial staff of De Volkenbond (League of
Nations), and for years she was President of the Jeugd-0nderwijs
Commissie (Committee for the Education of Youth) of the
Vereniging voor Volkenbond en Vrede (Society for the League of
Nations and for Peace).
During the German occupation of The Netherlands in World War II
she published an "illegal" pamphlet on Bezettingsrecht
(The Law of Military Occupation) and she also was on the
editorial staff of one of the underground papers in occupied
Holland.
She took an active part in organisations, for the care of jewish
war orphans, war-widows and their families and today she is
ordinary professor of International Law and International
Relations at the VU of Amsterdam.
Among her publications are:
De Vrouw en de Vredesbeweging (Women and the Peace Movement),
1924;
Bezettingsrecht (the Law of Military Occupation) 1941, the
illegal pamphlet mentioned above;
Uitsluitend Nationale Bevoegheid en Gemeenschapsbevoegdheid in
het Volkenrecht (Domestic Jurisdiction and Community Authority in
International Law), 1946;
Internationale Regeling der Atoomenergie (International Control
of Atomic Energy), 1947;
Misbruik van Recht in het Volkenrecht (Abuse of Rights in
International Law), 1948;
Vrede als Vrucht der Gerechtigheid (Peace, the Fruit of Justice),
1948;
Subjecten van Volkenrecht (Subjects of International Law), 1949;
Christendom en Internationale Ordening, (Christianity and
International Order), 1951.
Publications in English: The Christian Conception of a World
Community (Free-University Quarterly 1954);
Indonesia and the Republic of the South Moluccas (International
Relations, April 1958);
The Present Crisis in the Law of Nations (in Symbolae Verzijl,
1958);
The Principle of abstention and the Freedom of the Seas (in
Netherlands International Law Review, Special issue in honour of
Prof. Francois, July 1959).