Cornelis van Vollenhoven

Cornelis van Vollenhoven began his university studies at Leiden at the age of 17, where he would earn many degrees, including a master's in law (1895), a bachelor's degree in Semitic languages (1896), a master's in political science (1897), and finally his Ph.D. in law and political science (1898).

In 1901 Van Vollenhoven became a professor of the Adat Law of the Dutch East Indies at Leiden University.

Several of his students would go on to become prominent scholars in the field of Adat law, including Frederik David Holleman, whose doctorate was supervised by Van Vollenhoven.

For most of his life, Van Vollenhoven focused on the traditional legal system of Indonesia, the Adat.

He wrote numerous pamphlets on the subject, including "The Adat-law of the Netherlands-Indies” (Het adatrecht van Nederlandsch-Indië), which documented the adat traditions of 19 different regions, plus the adat traditions of the Foreign Orientals (vreemde oosterlingen, i.e. Arabs, Chinese, Indians, and the like).