Anita L. Allen • Faculty • Penn Carey Law

Anita L. Allen • Faculty • Penn Carey Law
Faculty
Anita L. Allen
Phone
(610) 716-0989
Email
aallen@law.upenn.edu
JD
Harvard
1984
PhD (philosophy)
Michigan
1980
MA
Michigan
1976
BA
New College
1974
Constitutional Law and Civil Rights
Jurisprudence and Philosophy
Professional Responsibility and Ethics
Social Justice, Equity, and Inclusion
Torts, Restitution, and Insurance Law
Privacy Law| Torts| Applied Ethics| Bioethics and the Law of Mental Health| African American Philosophy Since 1960| Bioethics of Reproduction| Privacy Law through the Lens of Race| Constitutional Law| Professional Responsibility| Professional Ethics| Jurisprudence and Legal Philosophy.
CV. allen.October 2024.pdf
(PDF)
Papers on SSRN
Anita L. Allen
Henry R. Silverman Professor of Law and Professor of Philosophy, Emeritus
Anita L. Allen is the Henry R. Silverman Professor of Law and Professor of Philosophy, Emeritus. A graduate of Harvard Law with a PhD from the University of Michigan in Philosophy, Allen is internationally renowned as an expert on philosophical and social justice dimensions of privacy and data protection law; ethics; bioethics; legal philosophy; women’s reproductive rights; and faculty advancement. She was Penn’s Vice Provost for Faculty from 2013-2020 and chaired the Provost’s Arts Advisory Council. Allen was named the Laurance S. Rockefeller Visiting Professor for Distinguished Teaching at Princeton University for the 2025-26 academic year; and will be a Resident Fellow at the Green College of the University of British Columbia in the fall of 2026.
Allen is an elected member of the National Academy of Medicine, the American Law Institute, the American Philosophical Society and a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. In 2018-19 she served as President of the Eastern Division of the American Philosophical Association. From 2010 to 2017, Allen served on President Obama’s Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues.
She has served on the faculty of the School of Criticism and Theory at Cornell, for which she is an advisor, and served a two-year term as an Associate of the Johns Hopkins Humanities Center, 2016-2018. Allen has been a visiting Professor at Tel Aviv University, Waseda University, Villanova University, Harvard Law, Fordham Law, Yale Law, and a Law and Public Affairs Fellow at Princeton.
She visited the Blavatnik School at Oxford University in 2022; was the University College, Oxford Hart Fellow in 2024; and delivered the H.L.A. Hart Memorial Lecture in 2024.
Allen was awarded an honorary doctorate from Tilburg University (Netherlands) in 2019 and from Wooster College in 2021. She was awarded the 2021 Philip L. Quinn Prize for service to philosophy and philosophers by the American Philosophical Association, the 2022 Founder’s Award by the Hastings Center for service to bioethics, and the 2022 Privacy Award of the Berkeley Law and Technology Center for groundbreaking contributions to privacy and data protection law.
A prolific scholar, Allen has published over 130 articles and chapters, and her books include
Unpopular Privacy: What Must We Hide
(Oxford, 2011);
Privacy Law and Society
(Thomson/West, 2017);
The New Ethics: A Guided Tour of the 21st Century Moral Landscape
(Miramax/Hyperion, 2004);
Why Privacy Isn’t Everything: Feminist Reflections on Personal Accountability
(Rowman & Littlefield, 2003), and
Uneasy Access: Privacy of Women in a Free Society
(Rowman & Littlefield, 1988).
She has given lectures all over the world, been interviewed widely, and has appeared on television, radio and in major media.
Allen currently serves on the Board of the National Constitution Center, The Future of Privacy Forum and the advisory Board of the Electronic Privacy Information Center, whose Lifetime Achievement Award she has received and whose board she has chaired. She has served on numerous other boards, editorial boards and executive committees including for the Pennsylvania Board of Continuing Judicial Education, the Association for Practical and Professional Ethics, the Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law, Planned Parenthood of Metropolitan Washington, the Association of American Law Schools, the Maternity Care Coalition, the Women’s Medical Fund, and the West Philadelphia Alliance for Children.
She is a member of the Pennsylvania and New York bars and formerly taught at Georgetown Law Center and the University of Pittsburgh Law School, after practicing briefly at Cravath, Swaine & Moore and teaching philosophy at Carnegie-Mellon University.
At Penn, Allen was a faculty affiliate of the Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics, the Africana Studies Department, the Center for Ethics and the Rule of Law, the Center for Technology, Innovation & Competition, and the Warren Center for Network and Data Sciences.
Featured Research
More Publications
Anita L. Allen and Jennifer E. Rothman, Post-Morten Privacy, 123 University of Michigan Law Review 285 (2024).
“Privacy, Critical Definition, and Racial Justice,”
Oxford Handbook of Applied Philosophy of Language,
22 May 2024. pp. 349-363.
Anita L. Allen and Christopher Muhawe, Is Privacy Really a Civil Right?  40 Berkeley Journal of Law and Technology 1 (2025)
Dismantling the Black Opticon: Race Equity, Online Platforms and Reform,
131 Yale Law Journal Forum, 2021-22.
Unconditional Love, Some Implications for the Law, 44 Oxford Journal of Legal Studies 755 (2024)
Vowing Moral Integrity: Adrian Piper’s Probable Trust Registry, 19
European Journal of Analytic Philosophy
(no. 1, 2023).
In the News
View All
Distinguished Faculty Retirement
July 1, 2025
Prof. Anita Allen’s Study on Data Privacy Cited
January 21, 2025
Prof. Anita Allen Discusses Privacy on Podcast
September 26, 2024
Distinguished Lecture on Jurisprudence
May 15, 2024
Publications
Articles
Articles
Is Privacy Really a Civil Right?
(Co-authored),
Berkeley Law and Technology Journal
(2025)
Unconditional Love, Some Implications for the Law
Oxford Journal of Legal Studies
(2024)
Postmortem Privacy
(Co-authored),
Michigan Law Review
(2024)
The Dead Unborn, Postmortem Privacy Cases, and Abortion Rights
Hastings Center Report
(2024)
Ethical Responsibilities for Companies That Process Personal Data
(Co-authored),
American Journal of Bioethics
(2023)
Vowing Moral Integrity: Adrian Piper's Probable Trust Registry
European Journal of Analytic Philosophy
(2023)
How Should Clinicians Own Their Roles as Past and Present Exacerbators of Health Inequity and as Present and Future Contributors to Health Equity?
(Co-authored),
AMA Journal of Ethics
(2022)
Privacy, Health, and Race Equity in the Digital Age
American Journal of Bioethics
(2022)
Dismantling the “Black Opticon”: Privacy, Race Equity, and Online Data-Protection Reform
Yale Law Journal Forum
(2022)
HIPAA at 25—A Work in Progress
New England Journal of Medicine
(2021)
Ideas and Ideals: Honouring Joyce Mitchell Cook
Think
(2021)
What is Privacy?
ABA GPSolo
(2020)
The Philosophy of Privacy and Digital Life
Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society
(2019)
Synthesis and Satisfaction: How Philosophy Scholarship Matters
Theoretical Inquiries in Law
(2019)
Webster Marks Time
Biolaw
(2019)
Bruised Soul of the Artist: A Tribute to Sheldon W. Halpern
Ohio State Law Journal
(2017)
Protecting One's Own Privacy in a Big Data Economy
Harvard Law Review Forum
(2016)
The Declining Significance of Home: Privacy "Whilst Quiet" and of No Use to Artists or Anyone
HA: Journal of the Hannah Arendt Center for Politics and the Humanities
(2016)
Cognitive Enhancement and Beyond: Recommendations from the Bioethics Commission
(Co-authored),
Trends in Cognitive Sciences
(2015)
African American Philosophers and the Critique of Law
The Black Scholar
(2013)
Privacy Law: Positive Theory and Normative Practice
Harvard Law Review Forum
(2013)
An Ethical Duty to Protect One’s Own Information Privacy?
Alabama Law Review
(2013)
Natural Law, Slavery, and the Right to Privacy Tort
Fordham Law Review
(2012)
First Amendment Privacy and the Battle for Progressively Liberal Social Change
University of Pennsylvania Journal of Constitutional Law
(2012)
What Must We Hide: The Ethics of Privacy and the Ethos of Disclosure
St. Thomas Law Review
(2012)
Book Review: The Offensive Internet: Speech, Privacy, and Reputation
Ethics & International Affairs
(2012)
Associational Privacy and the First Amendment:
NAACP v. Alabama
, Privacy and Data Protection
Alabama Civil Rights & Civil Liberties Law Review
(2011)
Was I Entitled or Should I Apologize? Affirmative Action Going Forward
Journal of Ethics
(2011)
Is There a Right to Health?
Journal of Human Development & Capabilities
(2011)
Privacy Torts: Unreliable Remedies for LGBT Plaintiffs
California Law Review
(2010)
Mental Disorders and the "System of Judgmental Responsibility"
Boston University Law Review
(2010)
The Poetry of Genetics: On the Pitfalls of Popularizing Science
Hypatia: A Journal of Feminist Philosophy
(2009)
Driven into Society: Philosophies of Surveillance take to Streets of New York
Amsterdam Law Forum
(2009)
Bruce Kuklick's
Black Philosopher, White Academy: the Career of William Fontaine
Pennsylvania Magazine of History & Biography
(2009)
The Virtuous Spy: Privacy as an Ethical Limit
The Monist: An International Quarterly Journal of General Philosophical Inquiry
(2008)
Unpopular Privacy: The Case for Government Mandates
Oklahoma City University Law Review
(2008)
Situated Black Women’s Voices in/on the Profession of Philosophy
(Co-authored),
Hypatia: A Journal of Feminist Philosophy
(2008)
Dredging Up the Past: Lifelogging, Memory and Surveillance
University of Chicago Law Review
(2008)
Undressing Difference: The
Hijab
in the West
Berkeley Journal of Gender, Law & Justice
(2008)
Face to Face with “It”: And Other Neglected Contexts of Health Privacy
Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society
(2007)
No Dignity in Body Worlds: A Silent Minority Speaks
American Journal of Bioethics
(2007)
Introduction
Journal of Animal Law & Ethics
(2006)
Disrobed: The Constitution of Modesty
Villanova Law Review
(2006)
Moralizing in Public
Hofstra Law Review
(2006)
Race, Face, and Rawls
Fordham Law Review
(2004)
Privacy Isn't Everything: Accountability as a Personal and Social Good
Alabama Law Review
(2003)
Student and Faculty Perspectives on Black Americans’ Success in the White Academy
(Co-authored),
Negro Educational Review
(2001)
Minor Distractions: Children, Privacy and E-Commerce
Houston Law Review
(2001)
The Wanted Gaze: Accountability for Interpersonal Conduct at Work
Georgetown Law Journal
(2001)
Gender and Privacy in Cyberspace
Stanford Law Review
(2000)
Privacy-as-Data Control: Conceptual, Practical, and Moral Limits of the Paradigm
Connecticut Law Review
(2000)
Coercing Privacy
William & Mary Law Review
(1999)
Privacy and the Public Official: Talking about Sex as a Dilemma for Democracy
George Washington Law Review
(1999)
Lying to Protect Privacy
Villanova Law Review
(1999)
Social Contract Theory in American Case Law
Florida Law Review
(1999)
Genetic Testing, Nature, and Trust
Seton Hall Law Review
(1997)
The Proposed Equal Protection Fix For Abortion Law: Reflections on Citizenship, Gender, and the Constitution
Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy
(1995)
Cross-Cultural Commerce in Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice
(Co-authored),
American University Journal of International Law & Policy
(1995)
Do Children Have a Right to a Certain Identity?
Rechtstheorie
(1993)
Hobbes, Formalism, and Corrective Justice
(Co-authored),
Iowa Law Review
(1992)
The Role Model Argument for Faculty Diversity
Philosophical Forum
(1992)
Autonomy's Magic Wand: Abortion and Constitutional Interpretation
Boston University Law Review
(1992)
The Jurisprudence of Jane Eyre
Harvard Women's Law Journal
(1992)
The Black Surrogate Mother
Harvard BlackLetter Law Journal
(1991)
Reading Afrocentric History
Law & Inequality
(1991)
The Power of Private Facts
Case Western Reserve Law Review
(1991)
On Being a Role Model
Berkeley Journal of Gender, Law & Justice
(1990)
Surrogacy, Slavery, and the Ownership of Life
Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy
(1990)
Alive and Well: Religious Freedom in the Welfare State
William & Mary Law Review
(1990)
How Privacy Got Its Gender
(Co-authored),
Northern Illinois University Law Review
(1990)
The Federalist's Plain Meaning: Reply to Tushnet
(Co-authored),
Southern California Law Review
(1988)
Privacy, Surrogacy, and the Baby M Case
Georgetown Law Journal
(1988)
Rethinking the Rules Against Corporate Privacy Rights: Some Conceptual Quandries for the Common Law
John Marshall Law Review
(1987)
Taking Liberties: Privacy, Private Choice, and Social Contract Theory
University of Cincinnati Law Review
(1987)
Retribution, Justice, and Therapy
The Philosophical Review
(1981)
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View all 75
Books
Books
Privacy Law and Society, 3rd Edition
(Co-authored), West Academic (2016)
Unpopular Privacy: What Must We Hide
, Oxford University Press (2011)
Privacy law today
, Cognella (2011)
Everyday ethics: opinion-writing about the things that matter most
, University Readers (2011)
The New Ethics: A Guided Tour of the 21st Century Moral Landscape, 1st Edition
, Miramax Books (2004)
Why Privacy Isn't Everything: Feminist Reflections on Personal Accountability
, Rowman & Littlefield (2003)
Privacy law: cases and materials, 2nd Edition
(Co-authored), West Academic (2002)
Debating democracy's discontent: essays on American politics, law, and public philosophy
(Co-authored), Oxford University Press (1998)
Uneasy access: privacy for women in a free society
, Rowman & Littlefield (1988)
Chapters
Chapters
Defining Away Our Privacy
in
Conceptions of Data Protection and Privacy
(2026)
Discerning Death
in
Open Casket: Philosophical Meditations on the Lynching of Emmett Till
(2025)
Privacy, Critical Definition, and Racial Justice
in
The Oxford Handbook of Applied Philosophy of Language
(2024)
Revised opinions in Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton: Anita Allen (concurring in the judgment)
in
What Roe V. Wade Should Have Said: The Nation's Top Legal Experts Rewrite America's Most Controversial Decision, Revised Edition
(2023)
Social Monitoring: Is it Social?
in
Useless Bodies?
(2022)
The Discretion of Academic Administrators
in
Academic Ethics Today: Problems, Policies, and Prospects for University Life
(2022)
Getting Close: Philosophers Engage with Government and NGOs
in
A Companion to Public Philosophy
(2022)
Privacy and Medicine
in
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
(2021)
Angela Davis
in
The Philosopher Queens: The lives and legacies of philosophy's unsung women
(2020)
Still Uneasy: A Life with Privacy
in
The Handbook of Privacy Studies: An Interdisciplinary Introduction
(2019)
Compliance-Limited Health Privacy Laws
in
Social dimensions of privacy: Interdisciplinary Perspectives
(2015)
Veiled Women in the American Courtroom: Is the Niqab a Barrier to Justice?
in
The Rule of Law and the Rule of God
(2014)
Legal Aspects of Abortion
in
Bioethics
(2014)
Privacy in Health Care
in
Bioethics
(2014)
Medicine in the 21st Century: Ethical Means and Ends
in
Dimensions of Goodness
(2013)
Hijabs and Headwraps: The Case for Tolerance
in
Freedom of Expression in a Diverse World
(2010)
Constitutional Law and Privacy
in
A Companion to Philosophy of Law and Legal Theory
(2010)
Atmospherics: Abortion Law and Philosophy
in
On Philosophy in American Law
(2009)
Confidentiality: An Expectation in Health Care
in
Penn Center Guide to Bioethics
(2009)
in
Encyclopedia of Privacy
(2007)
Social Contract Theory, Slavery, and the Antebellum Courts
(Co-authored) in
A Companion to African-American Philosophy
(2006)
in
The Oxford Handbook of Practical Ethics
(2005)
Revised opinions in Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton: Anita Allen (concurring in the judgment)
in
What Roe v. Wade Should Have Said: The Nation's Top Legal Experts Rewrite America's Most Controversial Decision
(2005)
Open Adoption is not for Everyone
in
Adoption Matters: Philosophical and Feminist Essays
(2005)
Affirmative Action
in
Encyclopedia of African-American Culture and History: The Black Experience in the Americas
(2005)
Privacy in American Law
in
Privacies: Philosophical Evaluations
(2004)
in
World Book Encyclopedia
(2003)
Against Drug Use
in
Essays in Honor of Bernard Boxill
(2003)
Why Journalists Can’t Protect Privacy
in
Journalism and the Debate Over Privacy
(2003)
Civic Virtue, Cultural Bounty: The Case for Ethnoracial Diversity
in
Moral and Political Education
(2001)
Privacy versus the Public's Right to Know
in
The Concise Encyclopedia of Ethical Issues in Politics and the Media
(2000)
Interracial Marriage: Folk Ethics in Contemporary Philosophy
in
Women of Color and Philosophy
(2000)
Confronting Moral Theories: Gewirth in Context
in
Gewirth: Critical Essays on Action, Rationality and Community
(1999)
Can Affirmative Action Combat Racial Discrimination? Moral Success and Political Failure in the United States
in
Combating Racial Discrimination: Affirmative Action as a Model for Europe
(1999)
in
A Companion to Feminist Philosophy
(1998)
Slavery and Surrogacy
in
Subjugation and Bondage: Critical Essays on Slavery and Social Philosophy
(1998)
Jurisprudence
in
Looking at Law School: A Student Guide from the Society of American Law Teachers
(1997)
Genetic Privacy: Emerging Concepts and Values
in
Genetic Secrets: Protecting Privacy and Confidentiality in the Genetic Era
(1997)
The Jurispolitics of Privacy
in
Reconstructing Political Theory
(1996)
Constitutional Law and Privacy
in
A Companion to Philosophy of Law and Legal Theory
(1996)
Forgetting Yourself
in
Feminists Rethink the Self
(1996)
Privacy at Home: The Twofold Problem
in
Revisioning the Political: Feminist Reconstructions of Traditional Concepts in Western Political Theory
(1996)
Moral Multiculturalism, Childbearing, and AIDS
in
HIV, AIDS, and Childbearing: Public Policy, Private Lives
(1996)
The Half-Life of Integration
in
Reassessing the Sixties: Debating the Political and Cultural Legacy
(1996)
Privacy and Reproductive Liberty
in
"Nagging" Questions: Feminist Ethics in Everyday Life
(1995)
Legal Issues in Non-Voluntary HIV Testing
in
AIDS and the Next Generation: Towards a morally acceptable public policy for HIV testing of pregnant women and newborns
(1992)
Legal Rights for Poor Blacks
in
The Underclass Question
(1992)
Newsmagazines and the Black Agenda
(Co-authored) in
Discrimination and Discourse
(1988)
Women and their Privacy: What is at Stake
in
Beyond Domination: New Perspectives on Women and Philosophy
(1983)
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Other
Other
Lecture,
Privacy and Civil Rights | Conférence commémorative Ian-R.-Kerr - The Ian R. Kerr Memorial Lecture
, Centre for Law, Technology and Society at the University of Ottawa (2025)
Keynote Address,
Discerning the Dead: How Mamie Till’s Abdication of Privacy Sparked the Civil Rights Movement
, UC Berkeley School of Law (2025)
Panel,
The U.S. Elections - What's Next?
, American Philosophical Society (2025)
Lecture,
Postmortem Privacy. An event with Anita L. Allen
, SPUI 25 (2024)
Panel,
Webinar Teaching Information Privacy Law
, TeachPrivacy (2024)
Video,
SCOTUS has started a new session. Here's what legal expert Anita Allen wants you to know
, Reported with Randi Richardson (2024)
Podcast,
Prof. Anita Allen of the University of Pennsylvania on Privacy
, Scientific Sense (2024)
Lecture,
Postmortem Privacy
, Oxford Jurisprudence Discussion Group (2024)
Lecture,
The H.L.A. Hart Memorial Lecture 2024
, University College, Oxford (2024)
Podcast,
Is your privacy sacred?
, God Forbid (2024)
Video,
Synthesis and Satisfaction
, Faculti (2024)
Podcast,
Deliberative democracy, social justice and the Black Opticon: a discussion with Dr. Anita Allen
, Bioethics in the margins (2024)
Lecture,
Keynote com Anita Allen - Data Privacy Global Conference 2023
, Data Privacy Brasil (2024)
Interview,
Dr Anita Allen Discusses the Current Regulatory Landscape on Abortions
, AJMC (2023)
Report,
Health Data Privacy in the Balance: Evolving Values and Priorities
, Aspen Insitute (2023)
Online Article,
Machine Learning
, The Regulatory Review (2021)
Show 7 more...
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Related Links
DailyBeast.Com Blogs
Moralist Columns, The Star-Ledger
National Public Radio
SSRN Author’s Page
Interview: The Stone, New York Times
Interview: What It’s Like to be a Philosopher
Interview: In Plato’s Footsteps and Paving Others’ Way
Interview: London School of Economics Book Club
Interview: Anita Allen, Charles Mills and Bryan van Norden on Racism and Western Philosophy
Inaugural Dr. Joyce Mitchell Cook, Memorial Lecture
2024 HLA Hart Memorial Lecture