The Catholic Law Faculty kicked off the new year with a Faculty Research Presentation featuring the work of Professor Megan La Belle, Co-Director of the Law and Technology Institute. She is an expert on intellectual property and procedure, as well as administrative law and federal courts. La Belle presented her paper, “Personal Jurisdiction and the Fairness Factor(s).”

La Belle began her presentation by outlining decades of confusion surrounding the personal jurisdiction doctrine created by conflicting court decisions. She also noted that, recently, the question of consent to jurisdiction by registration to do business has been teed up for the U.S. Supreme Court. Her article zooms out to consider the fundamental question that she believes should underlie all personal jurisdiction decisions: When is the exercise of jurisdiction over an out-of-state defendant fair? La Belle argues that fairness should not only be part of every jurisdictional calculus but should take a central role in deciding whether a nonresident defendant must answer to a lawsuit.

Hosted by Professor Cara H. Drinan, Director of Faculty Research, Faculty Research Series events are held monthly. The next event will be held on February 18, 2022. Please check back on the News and Events page for updates regarding upcoming events.