Julius Christiaan van Oven

Julius Christiaan van Oven (17 November 1881 – 16 March 1963) was a Dutch jurist and politician of the Labour Party (PvdA).

For 34 years, Van Oven was professor of Roman law, from 1917 to 1925 at the University of Groningen and from 1925 to 1951 at Leiden University. In 1948 he was elected a member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences. At the age of 74, he was asked to succeed Leendert Antonie Donker, who died in office in February 1956, as Minister of Justice in the Third Drees cabinet. During the 8 months he was in office, he managed to establish a law he had been advocating for since 1927: this Lex-Van Oven law finally annulled the legal incapacity of married women, including the prohibition for them to hold office.

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