Willem Johannes Witteveen (Dutch pronunciation:[ˈʋɪləmjoˈɦɑnəsˈʋɪtəˌveːn]; 5 May 1952 – 17 July 2014) was a Dutch legal scholar, politician, and author. He was a law professor at
Tilburg University (1990–2014) and a
Member of the Senate for the
Labour Party (1999–2007; 2013–2014). He was also the author of several books about law and politics. Witteveen was killed on 17 July 2014 when the flight he was travelling on,
Malaysia Airlines Flight 17, was shot down over eastern
Ukraine.
Early life and education
Willem Johannes Witteveen was born on 5 May 1952 in
Rotterdam in the Netherlands.[1]
He was the son of liberal politician
Johan Witteveen and Liesbeth de Vries Feijens. He was also the great-grandson of social-democratic politician
Floor Wibaut.[2][3] He had three brothers and a sister.[1]
From 2007 to his death, he was founding dean of the
College of Liberal Arts at Tilburg University.[1][5] From 2013 to his death, he was again a senator.[1] He was appointed after Pauline Meurs left the Senate.[6]
Witteveen had finished the manuscript of his book De wet als kunstwerk (The law as work of art) shortly before his death.[7] The book was posthumously released in November 2014.[8]
Death
Witteveen was killed on 17 July 2014 at the age of 62, along with his wife Lidwien Heerkens and their daughter Marit Witteveen.[3][5] They were passengers on
Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 from
Schiphol in the Netherlands to
Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia, when the airplane was shot down near
Hrabove in Ukraine's contested eastern
Donetsk region.[9][10][11]
Personal life
Like his father, Witteveen was a
Universal Sufist.[2][12] In 1978, he married Lidwien Heerkens; the couple had two children, a daughter Marit and a son Freek. The family lived in
Breda in
North Brabant.[1][5][13]
Bibliography
Witteveen wrote several non-fiction books about law and politics:
(1988) De retoriek in het recht (The rhetorics of law)[14]
(1992) Het theater van de politiek (The theater of politics)[15]
(1996) De geordende wereld van het recht (The structured world of the law)[16]
(2000) De denkbeeldige staat (The imaginary state)[17]
(2002) De sociale rechtsstaat voorbij (Past the welfare state) with Bart van Klink[18]
(2010) Het wetgevend oordeel (The legislative judgement)[19]
(2014) De wet als kunstwerk (The law as work of art)[8]
Bold also signifies the
President
Brackets () signifies a temporary absent member Italics signifies a temporary member <> signifies a member who prematurely left this Senate