Albert Blaustein

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Albert Blaustein
Born 12 October 1921
New York City
Died 1994
Occupation Lawyer, Legal advisor

Albert Paul Blaustein (1921 - 1994) was an American Civil Rights and human rights lawyer and expert constitutional consultant who helped draft the Fijian and Liberian constitutions, as well as being called in as a consultant for the constitutions of for Zimbabwe, Bangladesh, Cambodia and Peru. To a lesser extent, he was involved in the constitutions of Poland, South Africa, Hungary, Romania, Niger, Uganda and Trinidad and Tobago. He was the editor of the 20-volume encyclopaedia Constitutions of the Countries of the World.

Blaustein was born in New York City to lawyer Allen Blaustein and Rose Brickman, and often operated under the pseudonym Allen de Graff. He attended the University of Michigan, where he worked on The Michigan Daily newspaper, graduating in 1941. He went on to obtain more honors from the Columbia University in 1948, and in the same year he was admitted to the New York State Bar. Between 1948 and 1955 he worked in the New York Law School as assistant professor of law as well as a consultant for the National Trial Lawyers Association before moving to Rutgers University until 1959, when he became law librarian.[1]

From 1959 until 1968 Blaustein worked in the London School of Economics and Political Science, the Constitution Associates foreign advisory board and the US Department of Education and the US Commission on Civil Rights from 1962 - 1963. Between 1971 and 1972 he acted as a legal consultant to various African nations and to the United States Senate. He worked with the Civil Rights Reviewing Authority, National Committee for American Foreign Policy, New Jersey Division on Civil Rights and also helped found Law day.[2] Blaustein later worked to develop the Russian court system and constitution,[3] and in 1966 served as the expert witness on legal aspects of population control for the US Senate.

During his life he served 14 years in the US Army Reserves retiring with the rank of major, and served from 1942 until 1946 in the Judge Advocate General's Corps. He had three children, Mark Allen, Eric Barry and Dana Beth.[4]

[edit] Written work

  • Framing the Modern Constitution: A Checklist 1994
  • Human Rights in the World's Constitutions 1993
  • Discrimination Against Women: A Global Survey of the Economic, Educational, Social and Political Status of Women 1990
  • Constitutions That Made History 1988
  • Resolving Language Conflicts: A Study of the World's Constitution 1986
  • Independence Documents of the World 1977
  • The Arab Oil Weapon 1977
  • Civil Rights and the Black American: A Documentary History 1976
  • Desegregation and the law: The meaning and effect of the school segregation cases 1957
  • The American lawyer: A summary of the "Survey of the legal profession 1954[5]

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ A brief biography retrieved on March 22, 2007
  2. ^ A brief biography retrieved on March 22, 2007
  3. ^ The Philadelphia Inquirer article retrieved on March 23, 2007
  4. ^ A brief biography retrieved on March 22, 2007
  5. ^ Amazon.com list of published works retrieved on March 23, 2007