oa Mr. A.M.L. van Rooij-Lange (1890-1984)

This article is a biographical portrait of Anna Maria Louiza Lange, who acted as the first female judge in the Kingdom of the Netherlands. Lange studied and graduated in Leiden, after which she worked as a magistrate for many years in various courts in the Dutch EastIndies. In 1921 Lange substituted for a male judge and acted as a full member of the court in Padang, on the West Coast of Sumatra. This led to a significant court case (�the Padang Affair�), in which the Supreme Court of the Dutch East-Indies ruled that � given the changing needs and insights � �it should be assumed that women as such are not excluded from the judiciary�. Lange must have been an excellent magistrate. In 1931, she was even awarded a knighthood in the Order of Orange-Nassau.