iSchool Colloquium: Jim Harper

​Colloquium Topic: Choice-of-Law Alternative to Federal Preemption of State Privacy Law

​Jim Harper is a nonresident senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), where he focuses on privacy issues, and select legal and constitutional law issues.

​The School of Information Sciences Colloquium Series is a place for the formal presentation and discussion of research, creative projects, and professional activities by faculty members, students, staff, and invited guest speakers. These talks are designed to promote scholarly dialogue, provide constructive feedback, and enhance the academic community's understanding of ongoing work across disciplines.

​This talk will take place in Room 131 of the Information Sciences building (501 E Daniels Street) at the University of Illinois. There will also be a Meet & Greet Happy Hour with the speaker in the evening, following the event, in conjunction with the Champaign Blockchain Meetup Group of the UI Research Park.

​Jim Harper will explore an alternative to federal preemption of state privacy laws by proposing a federal statute that requires states to honor contractual choice-of-law provisions for privacy matters. This would allow companies and consumers to select the privacy laws of a particular state, fostering competition among states to develop the most attractive privacy regimes and enabling businesses to avoid the costly complexity of complying with a patchwork of state laws. Rather than imposing a one-size-fits-all federal standard, this approach preserves state sovereignty, encourages regulatory innovation, and better aligns with diverse consumer preferences.

​Proponents argue that such a framework avoids the pitfalls of both federal preemption and fragmented state regulation, while also sidestepping the risk of a “race to the bottom” through market dynamics, advocacy influence, and optional federal fallback provisions.