FREUND, ERNST
Ernst Freund was a brilliant legal scholar who oversaw the development of U.S. ADMINISTRATIVE LAW at the turn of the twentieth century. A
social reformer, Freund was an early proponent of
social research as a means of shaping the content
of U.S. law. As a political progressive, he also was
an articulate supporter of free speech rights under
the FIRST AMENDMENT of the U.S. Constitution.
Freund was born in New York City on Janu-
ary 30, 1864, to German American parents. He
attended the University of Berlin and the Uni-
versity of Heidelberg, receiving a law degree
from the latter in 1884. He went to New York
and practiced law there from 1886 to 1894.
Freund entered academe in 1892 when he
became professor of administrative law and
municipal corporations at Columbia University.
(He was also a doctoral student at Columbia’s
School of Political Science; he received his Ph.D.
in 1897.) In 1894, he began a long association
with the University of Chicago, accepting a posi-
tion in the political science department as a pro-
fessor of ROMAN LAW and JURISPRUDENCE.In
1903, he joined the faculty of the university’s
newly opened law school. Freund taught courses
in social legislation and proposed a new field,
the “science of legislation,” to underscore the
connection between political science and law.
Freund became a prominent figure at the
law school and served as the John P.Wilson Pro-
fessor of Law from 1929 to 1932. One of his
many achievements was the establishment of the
University of Chicago’s highly regarded gradu-
ate-level social services program, the first such
program in the nation. Involved in several
professional organizations, Freund served as
president of the American Political Science
Association in 1915.
Freund’s renown in legal circles grew as a
result of his cogent writing on the function and
parameters of administrative law (the body of
statutes, regulatory rules and regulations, and
court decisions implemented by administrative
and government agencies). Freund’s most
famous publication on the subject was Police
Power: Public Policy and Constitutional Rights,
published in 1904. Freund analyzed the limita-
tions imposed on legislative power by the FOUR-
TEENTH AMENDMENT of the U.S. Constitution.
He advocated a system of legal regulations that
balanced individual rights against business and
property rights.
Freund’s interest in statutory drafting led to a
position on the Commission on Uniform State
