Freund, Ernst, 1864-1932

Ernst Freund (January 30, 1864, in New York City – October 20, 1932, in Chicago, Illinois) was a noted American legal scholar. He received a Dr. Jur. from the University of Heidelberg (1884) and a Ph.D. in political science from Columbia University (1897). He was professor of political science at the University of Chicago (1894–1902) and then professor of law at Chicago (1903–1932), serving as the John P. Wilson Professor of Law (1929–1932). Freund was principally responsible for the development of administrative law in the United States during the early twentieth century. He was one of the organizers of the Immigrants' Protective League (1908). The University of Chicago Law School has established the Ernst Freund Distinguished Service Professorship of Law and Ethics in his honor, a seat currently held by philosopher Martha Nussbaum. U.S. Supreme Court justice Felix Frankfurter described Freund as "one of the most distinguished of all legal scholars in the whole history of the legal professoriate".