Paul A. Freund

Infobox Scientist
box_width = 200px
name = Paul Abraham Freund
birth_date = birth date|1908|2|16
birth_place = St. Louis, Missouri,
death_date = death date|1992|2|5
death_place = Cambridge, Massachusetts
nationality = flag|United States
fields = Constitutional law
workplaces = Harvard Law School
alma_mater = Washington University
Harvard Law School
doctoral_advisor =
academic_advisors =
doctoral_students =
notable_students = Elliot Richardson, Robert Taft, James Lynn, Thomas Eagleton
known_for =
author_abbrev_bot =
author_abbrev_zoo =
influences =
influenced =
awards =
religion = Jewish


footnotes =

Paul A. Freund (February 16, 1908-February 5, 1992) was an American jurist and law professor. He taught most of his life at Harvard Law School, and is known for writings on the United States Constitution and the Supreme Court of the United States.

Early life, education, and family

Freund was born in St. Louis, Missouri. He was a graduate of Washington University (1928) and Harvard Law School (1931, 1932). He served as president of the editorial board of the Harvard Law Review, and wrote his 1931 thesis on "The Effect of State Statutes on Federal Equity Jurisdiction."

Career

In 1932-1933, Freund served as law clerk for U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice Louis Brandeis. He later called this "the most important year in my life. Brandeis set superhuman standards and lived as if each day were his last on earth and every minute counted. He was a moralist. He saw moral issues where others saw expediency." [Gail Jennes, " [http://www.people.com/people/archive/article/0,,20066278,00.html|Paul Freund of Harvard Law: His Students Are a Who's Who in the Cabinet and the Congress] ," "People", (March 22, 1976).]

Freund next served at the United States Treasury, the Reconstruction Finance Corporation, and the Office of the Solicitor General, where he worked on Supreme Court briefs for major New Deal constitutional cases, arguing for a relatively flexible interpretation of the Constitution in economic and social matters.

He joined the faculty of Harvard Law School as lecturer in 1939, and was named professor of law in 1940. His career there of teaching and scholarship was interrupted only by a return to the Solicitor General's office during World War II and a year as visiting professor at Cambridge University. He was named Charles Stebbins Fairchild Professor in 1950, Royall Professor of Law in 1957, and Carl M. Loeb University Professor in 1958). Freund retired from Harvard Law School in 1976.

In 1960, because he had recently been named by President Eisenhower to the position of editor-in-chief of a projected multi-volume history of the Supreme Court, he declined an offer from President-elect John F. Kennedy to become Solicitor General of the United States that many believed would have led to his appointment to the Supreme Court. [Archibald Cox, "Paul A. Freund (16 February 1908-5 February 1992)," "Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society", Vol. 138.2 (June 1994): 325-26; see also Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr., "Robert Kennedy and His Times" (Houghton Mifflin, 2002), 378-79.] In 1962 President Kennedy nevertheless twice considered naming Freund to the Supreme Court, for the positions eventually filled by Deputy Attorney General Byron R. White and by Arthur Goldberg.

Writings

Most of Freund's writings were the result of invitations to speak. They have been collected, principally, in three volumes: "On Understanding the Supreme Court" (1949), "The Supreme Court of the United States: Its Business, Purposes and Performance" (1961), and "On Law and Justice" (1968).

Philosophy

Freund believed that the mission of law was "to impose a measure of order upon the disorder of experience without stifling diversity, spontaneity, and disarray." [Archibald Cox, "Paul A. Freund (16 February 1908-5 February 1992)," "Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society", Vol. 138.2 (June 1994): 324.]

Freund often cited Lord Acton's dictum, "When you perceive a truth, look for the balancing truth," writing that the great issues that come before the Supreme Court "reflect not so much a clash of right and wrong as a conflict between right and right: effective law enforcement and the integrity of the accused; public order and freedom of speech; freedom of worship and abstention from aiding as well as impeding religion. [Archibald Cox, "Paul A. Freund (16 February 1908-5 February 1992)," "Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society", Vol. 138.2 (June 1994): 325.] "The courts," he wrote, "are the substations that transform the high-tension charge of the philosophers into the reduced voltage of a serviceable current." [Eric Pace, "Paul A. Freund, Authority on Constitution, Dies at 83," "New York Times" (February 6, 1992). [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E0CE6D7133BF935A35751C0A964958260] ]

Influence

When he died, former Harvard Law School Dean James Vorenberg called Freund "the dominant figure of his time in the field of constitutional law." [Eric Pace, "Paul A. Freund, Authority on Constitution, Dies at 83," "New York Times" (February 6, 1992). [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E0CE6D7133BF935A35751C0A964958260] ]

Recognition

Paul Freund was a member of the American Philosophical Society and the Massachusetts Historical Society and a fellow and past president of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He received more than twenty honorary degrees. [Citation | title = Cambrdige Forum Speakers, 1970-1990 | url=http://www.harvardsquarelibrary.org/cfs/paul_freund.php | accessdate = 2008-07-18 ] In October 2006, an exhibit entitled "Balancing the Truth: Paul Freund 1908-1992" at the Harvard Law School Library marked the opening of the Paul A. Freund papers.

Personal life

Paul Freund's parents were Charles Freund and the former Hulda Arenson.

Tributes to Paul Freund's legendary kindliness are legion. Dean Vorenberg once said: "I never knew anyone more considerate than Paul. He was incapable of meanness." Dean Erwin Griswold said: "His tastes were always simple. There was no show or splurge about him. No one ever questioned his motivation, or his word. I never heard him speak unkindly about anyone. He never raised his voice, though his speech, in the classroom and in private conversation, was resonant, deliberate, and clearly understood. Yet, he was always shy and modest, though in no sense a recluse." John Davison, a Harvard Law School graduate, said: "To those who knew Paul Freund, the personal aspects of the man shine radiantly through: the ambling gait, the soft but sparkling eyes, the gentle voice and warm smile, the occasional arched eyebrow, reflecting often skepticism but never dismay, or perhaps the head thrown back with both brows raised, in laughter. He was humble, gentle and quick of wit, and never shrill. Always accessible to those who sought the dependable wisdom of his counsel, he was the truest and most loyal of friends." [Citation | last = Mitchell | first = Michael R. | url=http://www.geocities.com/wallstreet/floor/5871/freund.html | accessdate = 2008-07-18 ]

In the 1970s, Freund was living in an 11th-floor flat on the Charles River with a view of Harvard Stadium, where he regularly attended football games. [Gail Jennes, " [http://www.people.com/people/archive/article/0,,20066278,00.html|Paul Freund of Harvard Law: His Students Are a Who's Who in the Cabinet and the Congress] ," "People", (March 22, 1976).]

Freund died of cancer of the sinus on February 5, 1992, at the age of 83. About 250 boxes of his papers are deposited in the Harvard Law School Library. [Citation | title = Paul A. Freund. Papers: Finding Aid | url= http://oasis.lib.harvard.edu/oasis/deliver/~law00164 | accessdate = 2008-07-18 ]

Notes

Bibliography

* 1982: "Felix Frankfurter: Reminiscences and Reflections" (Harvard Law School)
* 1977: "The Moral Education of the Lawyer" (Emory University School of Law)
* 1970: "Experimentation with Human Subjects" (George Braziller)
* 1968: "On Law and Justice" (Belknap Press of Harvard University Press)
* 1965: Foreword to John D. Feerick, "From Failing Hands: The Story of Presidential Succession" (Fordham University Press)
* 1965: "Religion and the Public Schools" (Harvard University Press/Harvard Graduate School of Education/Oxford University Press) (with Robert Ulich)
* 1965: "The Supreme Court in Contemporary Life" (Southern Methodist University School of Law)
* 1964: "Ethical Aspects of Experimentation with Human Subjects" (American Academy of Arts and Sciences) (reprinted, 1969)
* 1961: "The Supreme Court of the United States: Its Business, Purposes and Performance" (World Publishing Company) (paperback 1967) (reprinted by P. Smith, 1972)
* 1957: "The Supreme Court and Fundamental Freedoms" (Harvard Law School Association of New Jersey)
* 1952-1953: "Constitutional Law: Cases and Other Problems" (Little Brown) (subsequent eds. or supplements 1954, 1959, 1961, 1966, 1967, 1969, 1977, 1978, 1980, some with Arthur E. Sutherland or Henry Monaghan)
* 1949: "On Understanding the Supreme Court" (Little, Brown) (reprinted by Greenwood Press, 1977)

Persondata
NAME=Freund, Paul A.
ALTERNATIVE NAMES=
SHORT DESCRIPTION=American jurist
DATE OF BIRTH=February 16, 1908
PLACE OF BIRTH=Saint Louis, Missouri
DATE OF DEATH=February 5, 1992
PLACE OF DEATH=Cambridge, Massachusetts