Kevin Walsh Installed as the Inaugural Knights of Columbus Endowed Professor of Law and the Catholic Tradition

President Peter Kilpatrick was honored to accept the new endowed professorship on behalf of the University. 

“It will allow students to engage in learning from world-class experts and in a vibrant campus culture that fosters intellectual discovery and growth, rooted in and guided by our faith,” Kilpatrick said. “The Catholic University of America has a long history of seeking the truth, responding in gratitude, and transforming gratitude into service. I would like to thank you, our benefactors, for the critical role you play in supporting that mission.”

Dean Stephen Payne of the Columbus School of Law introduced Walsh, a graduate of Dartmouth College, the University of Notre Dame, and Harvard Law School. Prior to joining Catholic University, Walsh taught for 13 years at the University of Richmond School of Law. Before joining the academic world, he was an associate at Hunton & Williams in litigation, intellectual property, and antitrust cases.  He started his career by clerking for Judge Paul Niemeyer on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit and Justice Antonin Scalia on the Supreme Court.  

“His scholarship on the scope of federal judicial power has appeared in numerous influential law journals and reviews. We are so fortunate to have him leading our Project on Constitutional Originalism and the Catholic Tradition,” Payne said.

Walsh said he aims to carry out the responsibilities of the chair in such a way that one worthier than himself will next fill it.

“‘Law and the Catholic Tradition’ is not, or ought not to be, the special domain of any one faculty member. All of what we study and teach about the law ought to be received and transmitted in the light of Catholic tradition,” he said. “To think otherwise runs the risk of a kind thinking that ‘Law and the Catholic Tradition’ is but a pious new mashup of an older interdisciplinary duo like ‘Law and Economics,’ or ‘Law and Literature,’ or ‘Law and Psychology.’ That would be a mistake. Catholic tradition is not an add-on, not something extra. It is the matrix within which we are to take hold of all reality, including the realities of law and justice. 

“For the study of law, this means understanding its teachings as part of a larger corpus juris,” Walsh continued, adding that working on law in the Catholic tradition contributes to larger bodies of ordinances of reason, for the common good, made by those with authority, and promulgated. He said that broader view brings into focus the essential — but limited — role of human law in implementing the natural law, which is the participation of the rational creature in the Eternal Law.

“A lot has come before. And with God’s grace, a lot more is to come after. Our job is to cooperate [...] This occasion we celebrate today is a sign of endurance, of growth over time, and a hopeful sign of things still to come.”
— Professor Kevin Walsh

The Mistress of Ceremonies for the evening was law student Eleni Moukas. The opening prayer was offered by Father Teo Brea, associate University chaplain, and the benediction to close the ceremony was given by Rev. Raymond C. O’Brien, Esq., M.Ch.A. 1975, D.Min. 1985.