Law and the 100-Year Life

“It seems everyone wants to live longer and longer, but Alstott, Gluck, and Rusyn are among the brave few willingly to peer into the near-term future and confront the social, economic, legal, and other problems created by centenarian societies. This book begins the absolutely invaluable task of delineating potential solutions to these problems. It will serve as the guidebook for all future work to create livable and just centenarian societies. Inevitably all of us — who will live long — will have to engage with its proposals.”

—Ezekiel J. Emanuel, Levy University Professor, Perelman School of Medicine and The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania

“Life expectancy has been increasing almost linearly, doubling in 150 years. Most see aging societies as an existential problem — older people without purpose and a drain on society. Alstott, Gluck and Rusyn see aging as a new opportunity to thrive, a ‘third demographic dividend.’ How refreshing. I can’t think of a book more important to our social fabric. What are legal and policy innovations for a new golden age? Look no further than this glorious book.”

—Lawrence Gostin, Distinguished University Professor, Georgetown Law

Eleanor Brown, Without Immigrants, Our Caregiving System Could Collapse, Generations Now (May 22, 2025)

Kea Wilson, Is U.S. Transportation Policy Ready For The ‘Silver Tsunami’?, Streetsblog USA (May 7, 2025) 

Sara Sternberg Greene, Saving for retirement takes more than the government telling us to, Salon (April 7, 2025)

June 9 – Duke University Geriatrics Grand Rounds, Durham, NC (Noah Kazis and Katherine Pratt)

June 19 – Stanford Geriatric Medicine Grand Rounds, Palo Alto, CA (Eugene Rusyn)

December 2 – Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center Geriatrics Grand Rounds, Boston, MA (Nina Kohn)

Anne L. Alstott

Jacquin D. Bierman Professor at Yale Law School

Kate Andrias

Patricia D. and R. Paul Yetter Professor of Law at Columbia Law School

Eleanor Brown

Professor of Law at Fordham University

Naomi Cahn

Justice Anthony M. Kennedy Distinguished Professor of Law and Co-Director of the Family Law Center at the University of Virginia School of Law

I. Glenn Cohen

James A. Attwood and Leslie Williams Professor of Law and Faculty Director of the Petrie-Flom Center for Health Law Policy, Biotechnology & Bioethics at Harvard Law School

Yaron Covo

Assistant Professor of Law at Case Western Reserve University School of Law 

Formerly a Senior Research Fellow at the Solomon Center for Health Law and Policy at Yale Law School

Cynthia Estlund

Crystal Eastman Professor at the New York University School of Law

Linda P. Fried

Dean of Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health

Abbe R. Gluck

Alfred M. Rankin Professor of Law and Faculty Director of the Solomon Center for Health Law and Policy at Yale Law School and Professor of Medicine at Yale School of Medicine

Jamal Greene

Dwight Professor of Law at Columbia Law School

Sara Sternberg Greene

Katharine T. Bartlett Distinguished Professor of Law at Duke University School of Law

Daniel J. Hemel

Professor of Law at New York University School of Law

Shon Hopwood

Associate Professor of Law at Georgetown University Law Center

Clare Huntington

Barbara Aronstein Black Professor of Law at Columbia Law School

Noah M. Kazis

Assistant Professor of Law at the University of Michigan Law School

Nina A. Kohn

David M. Levy L’48 Professor of Law at Syracuse University and Distinguished Scholar in Elder Law at the Solomon Center for Health Law and Policy at Yale Law School

Douglas A. Kysar

Joseph M. Field ‘55 Professor of Law at Yale Law School

Joanna L. Martin

Clinical Assistant Professor at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine

John Morley

Augustus E. Lines Professor of Law at Yale Law School

Kathryn Pratt

Professor of Law (and Sayre Macneil Fellow) at Loyola Law School

Kimberly Jenkins Robinson

Martha Lubin Karsh and Bruce A. Karsh Bicentennial Professor of Law and Director of the Education Rights Institute at the University of Virginia School of Law

Eugene Rusyn

Senior Academic Fellow at the Solomon Center for Health Law and Policy at Yale Law School

Elizabeth Scott

Harold R. Medina Professor of Law Emerita at Columbia University School of Law

Ganesh Sitaraman

New York Alumni Chancellor’s Chair at Vanderbilt Law School and Director of the Vanderbilt Policy Accelerator for Political Economy and Regulation

Gregory H. Shill

Professor of Law and Michael and Brenda Sandler Faculty Fellow in Corporate Law at the University of Iowa College of Law

Lior J. Strahilevitz

Sidley Austin Professor of Law at the University of Chicago

Kenji Yoshino

Chief Justice Earl Warren Professor of Constitutional Law and Faculty Director of the Meltzer Center for Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging at New York University School of Law

Taisu Zhang

Professor of Law at Yale Law School

We are grateful to the Oscar M. Ruebhausen Fund for generously supporting this research.