Willem Witteveen facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Willem Witteveen
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Witteveen in January 2014
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| Member of the Senate | |
| In office 15 January 2013 – 17 July 2014 |
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| In office 8 June 1999 – 12 June 2007 |
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| Personal details | |
| Born |
Willem Johannes Witteveen
5 May 1952 Rotterdam, Netherlands |
| Died | 17 July 2014 (aged 62) Malaysian Airlines Flight 17, near Hrabove, Ukraine |
| Cause of death | Aircraft shootdown |
| Political party | Labour Party (1994–2014) |
| Spouse |
Lidwien Heerkens
(m. 1978; died 2014) |
| Children | Marit (d. 2014) Freek |
| Parents |
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| Residences | Breda, Netherlands |
| Alma mater | Leiden University |
| Occupation | Politician, professor, author |
Willem Johannes Witteveen (born May 5, 1952 – died July 17, 2014) was a Dutch expert in law, a politician, and an author. He was a law professor at Tilburg University for many years. He also served as a Member of the Senate, which is part of the Dutch government, for the Labour Party. Witteveen wrote several books about law and politics. Sadly, he passed away on July 17, 2014, when the plane he was on, Malaysia Airlines Flight 17, was shot down over eastern Ukraine.
Early Life and Education
Willem Johannes Witteveen was born on May 5, 1952, in Rotterdam, a city in the Netherlands.
His father, Johan Witteveen, was also a politician. His mother was Liesbeth de Vries Feijens. Willem had three brothers and one sister. His great-grandfather, Floor Wibaut, was also a well-known politician.
Willem went to a public Montessori school for primary education in Rotterdam. He then attended the Rijnlands Lyceum secondary school from 1964 to 1970. After that, he studied Dutch law at Leiden University in Leiden from 1970 to 1978.
Career Highlights
From 1979 to 1989, Willem Witteveen worked as a researcher at Leiden University. He focused on constitutional law, which deals with the basic rules of a country's government. In 1988, he earned his PhD degree with high honors for his paper titled De retoriek in het recht (The rhetorics of law).
Starting in 1990 and until his death, he was a law professor at Tilburg University. He was an expert in several areas, including the trias politica (how government power is divided), how laws are made, and rhetoric (the art of speaking or writing effectively). He also studied legal theory and political theory.
Witteveen became a member of the Labour Party in 1994. He led a committee for the party from 1998 to 1999. He was a member of the Senate from 1999 to 2007. In the Senate, he was in charge of the committee for Internal Affairs and the High Councils of State. He ran for the Senate again in 2007 and 2011 but was not elected.
From 2007 until he passed away, he was the first dean of the College of Liberal Arts at Tilburg University. He returned to the Senate in 2013 and served there until his death. He took over the position after another senator, Pauline Meurs, left.
Just before he died, Witteveen finished writing his book called De wet als kunstwerk (The law as work of art). This book was published after his death in November 2014.
Tragic Death
Willem Witteveen passed away on July 17, 2014, at 62 years old. He was traveling with his wife, Lidwien Heerkens, and their daughter, Marit Witteveen. They were passengers on Malaysia Airlines Flight 17. The flight was going from Schiphol Airport in the Netherlands to Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia. Sadly, the airplane was shot down near Hrabove in Ukraine.
Personal Life
Willem Witteveen followed Universal Sufism, a spiritual path, just like his father. In 1978, he married Lidwien Heerkens. They had two children: a daughter named Marit and a son named Freek. The family lived in Breda, a city in the North Brabant province of the Netherlands.
