Background
He was born in New York City during a brief visit of his family to the United States. He was the third of six sons in a family of ten children.
He was born in New York City during a brief visit of his family to the United States. He was the third of six sons in a family of ten children.
After attending the Kreuzschule in Dresden and the Gymnasium at Frankfurt-am-Main, he went to the University of Berlin and the University of Heidelberg, receiving the degree of J. U. D. from the latter in 1884.
Returning to the United States, he practised law in New York City from 1886 until 1894. In 1892 his teaching career began when he joined the faculty of Columbia College as acting professor of administrative law.
His interest lay in teaching, and in 1894 he left his law practice to join the faculty of political science of the new University of Chicago.
Among the first to sense the growing importance of American administrative law, he wrote Administrative Powers over Persons and Property (1928).
Earlier he had compiled Cases on Administrative Law (1911, 2nd ed. , 1928).
His Standards of American Legislation (1917) won for him the James Barr Ames medal of the Harvard Law School. Shortly before his death he completed Legislative Regulation, which was published by the Commonwealth Fund in 1932.
In recognition of his many contributions to scholarship, the University of Chicago appointed him the first holder of the John P. Wilson Professorship of Law in June 1929. Freund frequently acted as consultant and adviser to legislative committees, judges, and other officials.
For many years up to the time of his death he served as commissioner from Illinois to the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws, his most important work in connection with which was the drafting of a uniform illegitimacy act, since enacted into law by many states.
For twenty-five years he worked with the Immigrants' Protective League, at times serving as its president. He drafted the act creating the Illinois state immigrants' commission.
Wealthy and endowed with much personal charm, Freund entertained gencrously, his home frequently being the scene of student gatherings.
He suffered a heart attack on October 19, 1932, and died the following day in the Billings Memorial Hospital, Chicago.
In 1902 he was made a full professor in the recently established law school. In 1915 he was president of the American Political Science Association. Besides establishing an enviable reputation as teacher and scholar, he produced works of authority in his field. At the age of forty he made a study of an uncharted area and published The Police Power: Public Policy and Constitutional Rights (1904), frequently cited by the Supreme Court. During the Illinois constitutional convention of 1920-22, Chicago retained him as its special counsel. Cooperating with social workers and other experts in the field of social legislation, he personally framed statutes on narcotics, child labor, labor conditions, marriage and divorce, and guardianship, and secured their enactment by many legislative bodies. His handbook of rules for drafting uniform statutes has long been a guide to draftsmen.
(Empire and sovereignty 44 Pages.)
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To the teaching of law Freund brought a thorough training and interest in European systems. Although he gave courses in such technical subjects as real property and wills, his interests were always focused on those aspects of law closely related to the social sciences--political science, economics, and sociology. Large numbers of students in these branches attended his lectures.
On May 13, 1916, he married Harriet Walton; they adopted two children--Emily Lou and Nancy.
