About

Anne L. Alstott is the Jacquin D. Bierman Professor at Yale Law School, with a secondary appointment at the Yale Child Study Center and an affiliation with the Yale Institution for Social and Policy Studies. She holds a J.D. from Yale Law School (1987) and an A.B. in Economics from Georgetown University (1984), graduating summa cum laude and with Departmental Honors. Her professional background includes working as an associate at Sullivan & Cromwell and as an Attorney-Advisor in the U.S. Treasury Department's Office of Tax Policy. She has taught at Columbia University School of Law and has been a faculty member at Yale Law School since 1997, with a period at Harvard Law School from 2008 to 2011. Her research focuses on public policy toward children and families, as well as public policy over the life cycle. She is the author of several books, including 'The Public Option,' 'A New Deal for Old Age,' 'No Exit,' and 'The Stakeholder Society.' Professor Alstott has received multiple teaching awards and is recognized for her broad expertise in law, social policy, and taxation.

Research topics

• Computer Security
• Computer Science
• Criminology
• Medicine
• Political Science
• Sociology
• Internet privacy
• Law
• Psychology
• Engineering
• Psychoanalysis
• Surgery
• Psychiatry
• Family medicine
• Gender studies

Selected publications

• Legal implications of living to 100 and beyond

  Edward Elgar Publishing eBooks · 2024-08-15

  book-chapter1st authorCorresponding

  This chapter considers the social and legal implications of the 100-year life for those living in the United States and other wealthy developed nations. It argues that the 100-year life poses a range of challenges for law in those nations. More people living into very old age has implications for work, retirement and healthcare, and is nuanced by socioeconomic inequality. Law will need to better reflect changing, and extended, work patterns as well as increasingly diverse family forms in modern-day affluent, longer-living societies, where serial relationships and blended families are becoming the norm. Very affluent older people experience later life differently from those who are very poor, who are more likely to age with greater ill health, disability and financial insecurity. Law has the potential to reduce and/or mitigate such inequalities, primarily in relation to work, pensions, disability and family law. The 100-year life will prompt legal changes which reflect the social changes it involves.

  PublisherDOI

• A thematic analysis of disinformation in gender-affirming healthcare bans in the United States

  Social Science & Medicine · 2024-05-09 · 19 citations

  articleSenior author
  PublisherDOI

• Combating Scientific Disinformation on Gender-Affirming Care

  PEDIATRICS · 2023-08-22 · 15 citations

  articleSenior author

  Scientific disinformation is false and misleading information that is used intentionally by legal and political actors to sway public opinion and oppose facts. In recent years, disinformation has become a tool for authorities to limit gender-affirming health care (GAC) for transgender and gender-expansive youth who experience gender dysphoria. Existing modes of expert intervention in health policy may not be sufficient to match the pace of these quickly unfolding health care bans. A cross-disciplinary team of academics in medicine, psychology, and law assembled to challenge scientific disinformation on GAC with 2 rapid-response rebuttal reports. Reports were produced in 3 to 10 weeks after the passage of GAC bans in Texas, Alabama, and Florida in 2022. They were posted online to facilitate dissemination and engage litigators, judges, policy experts, advocates, parents, and others. The team's efforts complemented public statements by medical societies and lawsuits brought by national LGBTQ litigators. The team's reports were cited in legal challenges to GAC bans in Texas, Alabama, and Florida. The team also filed amicus briefs for direct consideration by the courts and public comments to health care agencies in Florida. The reports received coverage in local and national media outlets in broadcast and print media. This advocacy case study describes the process used to challenge disinformation about GAC with rapid-response rebuttal reports, as well as the impact of this work and associated challenges. In an increasingly polarized political climate, this process may be adapted to other areas of health policy in which scientific disinformation takes root.

  PublisherDOI

• Protecting Transgender Health and Challenging Science Denialism in Policy

  New England Journal of Medicine · 2022 · 21 citations

  Senior authorCorresponding
  • Political Science
  • Sociology
  • Medicine

  Misused clinical research and disinformation have provided legal cover for bans on gender-affirming health care. Collaboration between medical and legal experts could help defeat such bans.

  PublisherDOI

• Biased Science: The Texas and Alabama Measures Criminalizing Medical Treatment for Transgender Children and Adolescents Rely on Inaccurate and Misleading Scientific Claims

  SSRN Electronic Journal · 2022-01-01 · 16 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior author
  PublisherDOI

• Scientific Misinformation Is Criminalizing the Standard of Care for Transgender Youth

  JAMA Pediatrics · 2022 · 30 citations

  • Computer Security
  • Medicine
  • Criminology

  This Viewpoint challenges new laws that criminalize gender-affirming care for transgender and nonbinary youth in the US.

  PublisherDOI

• Scientific Misinformation and Gender Affirming Care: Tools for Providers on the Front Lines

  Journal of Adolescent Health · 2022 · 25 citations

  • Computer Science
  • Computer Security
  • Internet privacy
  PublisherDOI

• Challenges in Designing Equitable Public Options

  Cambridge University Press eBooks · 2021-06-11

  book-chapterOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  One of the aspirations of a public option is to expand equality and opportunity by offering universal access to a good or service at an affordable price. 2 But in practice, public options are not always equitable and inclusive, and people of color, the poor, the less-educated, and rural residents are often on the losing end. Policymakers who want public options to live up to the promise of expanding equality and opportunity therefore need to think seriously about the challenges that prevent public options from achieving those aims. Some of these challenges stem from the structure of the public options themselves, which can be designed in ways that advance or constrict equality and opportunity. Others will require broader reforms to politics and the allocation of power. Understanding the broader context is essential in designing public options that can advance inclusionary goals.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Introduction

  Cambridge University Press eBooks · 2021-06-11

  book-chapterOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  A public option is a government-provided social good that exists alongside a similar, privately provided good. For example, in American public policy debates over the Affordable Care Act, some scholars and policymakers advocated for a publicly provided health insurance option (like Medicare) that could coexist alongside private health insurance options; individuals would be able to choose between the public option and private options. While the public option is typically identified with health care policy, public options have actually been a longstanding feature of American life in a variety of sectors. Public schools coexist with private schools; public swimming pools are an accessible alternative to building a pool in the backyard; public libraries provide an option to get a wide variety of books without purchasing them for one’s personal library.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• The Public Option

  Harvard University Press eBooks · 2019-07-01 · 3 citations

  bookSenior author
  PublisherDOI

Frequent coauthors

• Georg von Schnurbein

  217 shared

• Helmut K. Anheier

  217 shared

• Georgette Dumont

  University of North Florida

  211 shared

• Alex Murdock

  141 shared

• Martin Hölz

  140 shared

• Éric Bidet

  74 shared

• Jennifer Preece

  73 shared

• Aafke Komter

  73 shared

Awards & honors

• Willis Reese Award for Excellence in Teaching at Columbia (1…
• Yale Law Women’s Faculty Excellence Award (1998)
• Yale Law Women’s Faculty Excellence Award (2004)
• Yale Law Women’s Faculty Excellence Award (2012)
• Yale Law Women’s Faculty Excellence Award (2017)