Bert Röling

Bernard Victor Aloysius "Bert" Röling (26 December 1906 – 16 March 1985) was a Dutch jurist and founding father of polemology in the Netherlands.

At the latter he graduated cum laude in 1933 with his dissertation De wetgeving tegen de zogenaamde beroeps- en gewoontemisdadigers ("Legislation against so-called professional and habitual criminals"), awarded a prize by the University of Groningen.

Röling started teaching in Utrecht the same year and founded the Institute for Criminology in 1934 together with Willem Pompe.

Between 1946 and 1948 he acted as the Dutch representative for the International Military Tribunal for the Far East.

Röling was born in 's-Hertogenbosch as a son of journalist Gerardus Röling and Christina Maria Dorothea Taverne.

He had an older brother, the painter Gé Röling.

Röling studied law at Radboud University Nijmegen and Utrecht University.

In 1946 Röling was appointed member of the International Military Tribunal for the Far East.

In deliberations with judges from ten other countries, he dissented from the tribunal's verdict that convicted Japan as aggressor.

His views were shared by fellow judge Radhabinod Pal from India.

However, under the rules of the tribunal, all verdicts and sentences were decided by a majority of the presiding judges.

In 1950 Röling was appointed professor at the University of Groningen where he founded the Institute for Polemology in 1962.

He retired from academic life in 1977 yet remained active for the Institute until his death in 1985.

Bert Röling is the father of professor of architecture Wiek Röling and of painter Matthijs Röling as well as the uncle of artist Marte Röling.

Hugo Röling, another son, wrote a book about his father during the period as judge at the Tokyo War Crimes Tribunal.