AUERBACH, CARL A.

AUERBACH, CARL A. (1915– ), U.S. law professor. Born in New York, Auerbach graduated from Long Island University in 1935 and from Harvard Law School in 1938. He then took a position on the legal staff of the Department of Labor's Wage and Hour Division, followed by positions in the National Defense Commission and the Office of Price Administration (O.P.A.). In the latter agency he served as assistant general counsel. For two of the war years he served in the army, and then reentered federal government service, where he held important legal positions, including that of general counsel of the O.P.A. From 1947 to 1961 he was a professor at the University of Wisconsin Law School and then served for 25 years as a professor at the University of Minnesota Law School. As a law teacher and legal scholar, Auerbach selected as his chief subjects administrative law, constitutional law, civil rights, legal education, and law and the social sciences. Auerbach obtained a Fulbright Advanced Research Award at the London School of Economics and Political Science (1953–54), and then became a fellow with Stanford University's Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences (1958–59). In 1972 Auerbach was appointed acting dean at Minnesota, and was dean from 1973 to 1979. Auerbach is the author or co-author of several books on the regulation of transportation and on the legal process. He identified himself with the mainstream of American liberal thought, with the reform-liberal program and policies of Hubert Humphrey; he was one of the founders of Americans for Democratic Action. He believed that the best critical legal thought should have a bearing on important social and political issues and policies. His writings contributed to the planning that resulted in the civil rights legislation of Congress; and while he questioned the wisdom of the Communist Control Act of 1954, he defended its constitutionality. He has also written numerous articles in the areas of administrative law, civil rights, constitutional law, legal education, and law and the social sciences. Since 1985, Auerbach has been distinguished professor at the University of San Diego School of Law. As an eminent scholar in administrative law and constitutional law, Auerbach was the 1994 recipient of the American Bar Foundation Award for outstanding research in law and government. He is a member of the American Law Institute and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. (Milton Ridvas Konvitz and Ruth Beloff (2nd ed.)