[1] He was the son of liberal politician Johan Witteveen and Liesbeth de Vries Feijens.

In 1988, he received his PhD cum laude with the dissertation De retoriek in het recht (The rhetorics of law).

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.

[6] Witteveen had finished the manuscript of his book De wet als kunstwerk (The law as work of art) shortly before his death.

[2][12] In 1978, he married Lidwien Heerkens; the couple had two children, a daughter Marit and a son Freek.