About

Anne M. Coughlin is the Lewis F. Powell, Jr., Professor of Law at the University of Virginia. She joined the UVA faculty in 1996 after visiting during the 1995-96 academic year, having previously taught at Vanderbilt Law School from 1991-95. Her primary research and teaching interests include criminal law, criminal procedure, feminist jurisprudence, and law and humanities. She is co-author of a casebook on criminal law and has written extensively on the intersections among criminal law, criminal procedure, and feminist theory, as well as essays on law and literature. Coughlin received her J.D. from New York University School of Law, where she won numerous awards and served as managing editor of the NYU Law Review. She clerked for Judge Jon O. Newman of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit and for U.S. Supreme Court Justice Lewis F. Powell Jr. Her scholarly work includes articles, book chapters, and reports addressing issues such as gender participation in law, criminal justice, and legal history. She has also been actively involved in initiatives challenging gender discrimination, such as leading the Molly Pitcher Project, which challenged the ban on women in military combat. Coughlin has received the All-University Teaching Award, one of the University of Virginia's highest honors for excellence in teaching, research, and service.

Research topics

• Political Science
• Law
• Business
• Virology
• Medicine

Selected publications

• The Gender Participation Gap and the Politics of Pedagogy

  SSRN Electronic Journal · 2025-01-01

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• The Cosby case shows that we don't have rule of law. We have rule by prosecutor.

  2021

  1st authorCorresponding
  • Political Science
  • Law
  • Political Science
  Publisher

• Will Police Enforce Covid Stay-Home Orders More Harshly Against Black People?

  ˜The œWashington post · 2020

  1st authorCorresponding
  • Business
  • Medicine
  • Virology
  Publisher

• The Missing Key to Fighting Sexual Assault on Campus

  Symposium on Languages, Applications and Technologies · 2014-05-08 · 1 citations

  article1st authorCorresponding
  Publisher

• In the Army, sex discrimination begins at West Point

  The Washington Post · 2013-06-20

  article1st authorCorresponding
  Publisher

• To Stop Sexual Assault Against Women in the US Military, Add More Women

  2013-06-24

  article1st authorCorresponding
  Publisher

• The Failure of Consent: Re-Conceptualizing Rape as Sexual Abuse of Power

  SSRN Electronic Journal · 2011-01-01 · 1 citations

  articleOpen access

  Introduction • 2 I. The Empirical Failure of Consent • 9 A. The Refusal to Criminalize Nonconsensual Sex as Rape • 10 B. The Affirmative Consent Standard’s Empirical Failure • 12 C. In re M.T.S.: The Swing of the Pendulum • 15 D. Affirmative Consent in Comparative Law: Canada • 23 II. From Empirical Failure to Normative Inadequacy • 29 A. Reasons for the Empirical Failure • 29 1. Failure to Align Social Norms with Legal Changes • 29 2. The Persistence of the “No Means No” Debate • 30 3. Prosecutorial Discretion and Social Norms • 32 4. Criminal Law’s Role in Changing Social Norms • 33 5. Interpreting Consent as Permission • 36 B. Reasons for the Normative Inadequacy • 37 1. Failure to Capture Harm and Injury • 38 2. Failure to Capture Criminal Wrongdoing • 40 3. Failure to Account for Complainants’ Narratives • 43 4. Failure to Account for Conflicting Considerations • 45 III. An Alternative Underpinning of Rape Laws: Sexual Abuse of Power • 47 A. Abandoning Criminal Regulation? • 47 B. The Misdirected Turn to Force • 48 C. Rejecting Both Consent and Force • 52 D. Re-Conceptualizing Rape as Sexual Abuse of Power • 53 1. What Is Rape? Revisiting the “Violence or Sex” Debate • 54 E. The Proposed Model’s Normative Strengths • 59

  Publisher

• The Accidental Feminist

  Cambridge University Press eBooks · 2011-12-30 · 1 citations

  book-chapter1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• Faculty Colloquia, Fall 2008 Series

  2008-01-01

  article1st authorCorresponding
  Publisher

• Justice Powell at Peace: The High Court’s Decisions Finally Vindicate His Views on Race and Gay Rights

  2003-07-28

  article1st authorCorresponding
  Publisher

Frequent coauthors

• Guido P. Pez

  Air Products (United States)

  2 shared

• John A. Marsella

  Air Products (United States)

  2 shared

• Andrew G. Gilicinski

  2 shared

• Amanda Frost

  Washington College

  1 shared

• David J. Herring

  1 shared

• Kim Forde-Mazrui

  1 shared

• J. Harvie Wilkinson

  1 shared

• A. E. Dick Howard

  1 shared

Awards & honors

• All-University Teaching Award (1999)