Willem Witteveen

Willem Witteveen

Witteveen in January 2014
Member of the Senate
In office
15 January 2013 – 17 July 2014
In office
8 June 1999 – 12 June 2007
Personal details
Born Willem Johannes Witteveen
(1952-05-05)5 May 1952
Rotterdam, Netherlands
Died 17 July 2014(2014-07-17) (aged 62)
near Hrabove, Ukraine
Nationality Dutch
Political party Labour Party (1994–2014)
Spouse(s) Lidwien Heerkens (m. 1978; their deaths 2014)
Children Marit (d. 2014)
Freek
Parents
Residence Breda, Netherlands
Alma mater Leiden University
Occupation Politician, professor, author
Religion Universal Sufism

Willem Johannes Witteveen (Dutch pronunciation: [ˈʋɪləm joˈɦɑnəs ˈʋɪtəˌveːn]; 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]

He went to a public primary Montessori school in Rotterdam and to the public secondary school Rijnlands Lyceum (1964–1970) in Wassenaar. He studied Dutch law at Leiden University (1970–1978) in Leiden.[1]

Career

From 1979 to 1989, he worked as researcher of constitutional law at Leiden University. In 1988, he received his PhD cum laude with the dissertation De retoriek in het recht (The rhetorics of law). From 1990 to his death, he was a law professor at Tilburg University.[1] His fields of expertise were trias politica, legislation, rhetoric, legal theory, and political theory.[4]

Witteveen was a member of the Labour Party since 1994. He was chairman of the party platform committee of the Labour Party in 1998–99. He was a member of the Senate from 1999 to 2007, where he was chairman of the committee for Internal Affairs and the High Councils of State. In the 2007 and 2011 Senate elections, he was at an unelectable position on the candidate list.[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. They had a daughter Marit and a son Freek.[1][5][13]

He lived in Breda in the Netherlands.[1]

Bibliography

Witteveen wrote several non-fiction books about law and politics:

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 (Dutch) Prof.Dr. W.J. (Willem) Witteveen, Parlement & Politiek, 2014. Retrieved on 18 July 2014.
  2. 1 2 (Dutch) Dr. H.J. (Johan) Witteveen, Parlement & Politiek. Retrieved on 18 July 2014.
  3. 1 2 (Dutch) "Eerste Kamerlid Willem Witteveen omgekomen bij vliegramp", NU.nl, 2014. Retrieved on 18 July 2014.
  4. ↑ W.J. (Willem) Witteveen, Tilburg University. Retrieved on 20 July 2014.
  5. 1 2 3 Professor Witteveen, his wife and student daughter, killed in plane crash, Tilburg University, 2014. Retrieved on 18 July 2014.
  6. ↑ (Dutch) Benoeming W.J. Witteveen tot lid van de Eerste Kamer, Electoral Council, 2013. Retrieved on 21 July 2014.
  7. ↑ (Dutch) Willem Witteveen omgekomen, Uitgeverij Boom. Retrieved on 21 July 2014.
  8. 1 2 (Dutch) De wet als kunstwerk, Uitgeverij Boom. Retrieved on 15 December October 2014.
  9. ↑ (Dutch) "Senator Willem Witteveen omgekomen bij crash", Ouderenjournaal, 2014. Retrieved on 18 July 2014.
  10. ↑ "MH17 crash: Passengers on Malaysia Airlines plane in Ukraine", BBC News, 2014. Retrieved on 18 July 2014.
  11. ↑ Sabrina Tavernise, Eric Schmitt, and Rick Gladstone, "Jetliner Explodes Over Ukraine; Struck by Missile, Officials Say", The New York Times, 2014. Retrieved on 21 July 2014.
  12. ↑ (Dutch) Prof.dr. W.J. Witteveen (PvdA), Senate, 2014. Retrieved on 18 July 2014.
  13. ↑ "Victims of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17", The New York Times, 2014. Retrieved on 20 July 2014.
  14. ↑ (Dutch) De retoriek in het recht: over retorica en interpretatie, staatsrecht en democratie, Bibliotheek.nl. Retrieved on 23 July 2014.
  15. ↑ (Dutch) Het theater van de politiek : publieke retorica en de paspoortaffaire, Bibliotheek.nl. Retrieved on 23 July 2014.
  16. ↑ (Dutch) De geordende wereld van het recht: een inleiding, Bibliotheek.nl. Retrieved on 23 July 2014.
  17. ↑ (Dutch) De denkbeeldige staat: voorstellingen van democratische vernieuwing, Bibliotheek.nl. Retrieved on 23 July 2014.
  18. ↑ (Dutch) De sociale rechtsstaat voorbij: twee ontwerpen voor het huis van de rechtsstaat, Bibliotheek.nl. Retrieved on 23 July 2014.
  19. ↑ (Dutch) Het wetgevend oordeel: studies over wetgeving en communicatie, Bibliotheek.nl. Retrieved on 23 July 2014.

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