Melvin A. Eisenberg (born 3 December 1934) is the Jesse H. Choper Professor of law at the University of California, Berkeley. After studying at Columbia University (1956) and Harvard University (1959),^[1] he worked in the firm Kaye Scholer Fierman Hays & Handler, as assistant counsel in the Warren Commission, and joined Berkeley in 1966. He is recognised as a leading scholar in US corporate law, and contract law, in both of which he has authored leading textbooks.^[2]

He has advised the American Law Institute on both the Restatement (Third) of Agency and Restatement (Third) of Restitution.^[2] From 1991 to 1993, he held the Justice R. Ammi Cutter Chair at the institute.^[2] He was also Justin W. D'Atri Professor of Law, Business, and Society at Columbia University.^[2]

Eisenbeg received a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1981.^[3] He is also a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, elected in 1984.^[4]

Publications

Books

• Basic Contract Law (8th edn 2006)
• Cases and Materials on Corporations & Other Business Organizations (9th edn)

Articles

• 'The Structure of Corporation Law' (1989) 89(7) Columbia Law Review 1461, arguing for a core of mandatory rules in corporate law
• ‘Legal Modes of Management Structure in the Modern Corporation: Officers, Directors, and Accountants’ (1975) 63 California Law Review 376
• ‘Access to the Corporate Proxy Machinery’ (1970) 83 Harvard Law Review 1489, argued that shareholders should have rights to initiate actions like a sale or merger or amending the certificate of incorporation without a prior board proposal.