Gustave Rolin-Jaequemyns

Gustave Henri Ange Hippolyte Rolin-Jaequemyns lived from January 31, 1835 to January 9, 1902 and was a Belgian lawyer, diplomat and politician who served as Minister of the Interior from 1878 to 1884 as a member of the Unitarian Liberal Party. Together with the Swiss jurist Gustave Moynier, he founded the Institut de Droit International and became its first honorary president. Though personally deeply religious, he was considered anticlerical for his staunch defense of the separation of church and state. He served as an advisor to King Rama V of Thailand and played a significant role in that country's reform toward modern Western standards, for which he was awarded the title Chow Phya Abhai Raja, the highest distinction ever granted to a foreigner there. Widely recognized as an expert on international law, he played an important role in codifying the laws of war, became a member of several national academies, and received honorary doctorates from the universities of Edinburgh, Cambridge, Oxford and Brussels. In 1889 King Leopold II of Belgium appointed him a member of the High Council for the Congo Free State.