Haar, Barend Ter (1892–1941)

Barend ter Haar, a Dutch jurist, was one of the most prominent members of the adat law movement. He authored one of the few English works on adat law, an innovative, in-depth research study of customary law in the former Netherlands East Indies, now Indonesia.

Ter Haar studied law in Leiden and in 1915 wrote a dissertation on the procedural aspects of adat law, supervised by Cornelis van Vollenhoven (1874–1933). In 1924, after serving for a few years as a judge, ter Haar accepted a chair in adat law at the newly founded Law College of Batavia. Here, he actively conducted and supervised empirical research on indigenous customs and advocated for the recognition of these customs in the colonial legal system.

A three-volume Dutch collection of his ...