Albert P. Blaustein

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Albert Paul Blaustein (born  October 12, 1921 in Brooklyn , New York City , †  August 19, 1994 in Durham, North Carolina ) was an American lawyer who was particularly active in the areas of human and civil rights and constitutional law. He served as a professor at Rutgers University from 1955 to 1992 and participated in the drafting of new constitutions in more than 40 countries .

Life

Albert Blaustein was born in Brooklyn in 1921 and completed his academic training at the University of Michigan , where he earned an AB degree in 1941 . During World War II , he served in the Judge Advocate General's Corps (JAGC), the supreme judicial authority of the United States Armed Forces, from 1942 to 1946 . In 1948 he completed his studies with a Juris Doctor at Columbia University , then he worked again for the JAGC from 1950 to 1952 due to the Korean War . In the following years he initially worked as a resident attorney in his hometown of New York, where he also served as an assistant professor and librarian at the New York Law School from 1953 to 1955 . From 1955 he was associate professor and from 1959 to 1992 full professor of law at Rutgers University , where he also headed the law library from 1959 to 1968. In the 1960s and 1970s, he also worked in the USA as a consultant for various agencies and commissions on issues of desegregation and at universities in Asia and Africa in the development of law faculties and specialist libraries.

In addition, Albert Blaustein was involved in drafting new constitutions in a number of countries following political upheavals . Among other things, he drafted the constitutions of Liberia and Fiji , made significant contributions to the constitutions of Zimbabwe , Bangladesh and Peru , and helped shape around 40 other constitutions, such as those of Romania and Russia after the end of communism . He saw a constitution as a binding element for the ideals and aspirations of a people and as an expression to the world of what a country would stand for. In addition, he took the view that a constitution would help define a country's legal, political and moral identity, but must also reflect a country's culture and history. He also tried to incorporate western values into the constitutions he helped to shape. In the late 1970s, for example, he unsuccessfully tried to convince the leadership of the country under Robert Mugabe in Zimbabwe to guarantee equality for women.

Albert Blaustein was married from 1948 and the father of two sons and a daughter. He died of a heart attack in Durham in 1994 . Rutgers University Law School awards the Albert P. Blaustein Memorial Award to students in his memory for an outstanding publication in one of the faculty-edited journals .

Works (selection)

  • The American Lawyer: A Summary of the Survey of the Legal Profession. Chicago 1954
  • Desegregation and the Law: The Meaning and Effect of the School Segregation Cases. New Brunswick 1957
  • Independence Documents of the World. Dobbs Ferry 1977
  • Constitutions That Made History. New York 1988
  • Framing the Modern Constitution: A Checklist. Littleton 1994

literature

personal data
SURNAME Blaustein, Albert P.
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Blaustein, Albert Paul
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American lawyer and constitutional lawyer
DATE OF BIRTH October 12, 1921
PLACE OF BIRTH Brooklyn , New York City
DATE OF DEATH August 19, 1994
Place of death Durham, North Carolina