Bernard D. Meltzer

Bernard David Meltzer was an American legal scholar who was a professor of law at the University of Chicago Law School and a prosecutor at the Nuremberg trials. He was a leading scholar on labor law and a drafter of the U.N. Charter.

Early life and education

Meltzer was born on November 21, 1914, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. His parents, Julius Meltzer and Rose Wolkov Meltzer, were Russian immigrants, and he was one of six children. He graduated with an A.B. in 1935 before completing a J.D. from the University of Chicago Law School in 1937, graduating first in his class. Meltzer received a graduate fellowship to study at Harvard Law School, where he obtained a LL.M. in 1938.

Nuremberg trials

In 1946, Meltzer was recruited by Francis M. Shea, a New Dealer and member of the Franklin D. Roosevelt administration, to serve as a prosecutor at the Nuremberg Trials. and Nobel laureates Milton Friedman, George Stigler and Ronald Coase. His late son, Daniel Meltzer, served as chair of the President's Intelligence Advisory Board under the Obama administration and was a law professor at Harvard Law School.