Troubling Sex: Towards a Theory of Sexual Integrity

Abstract

The relationship between law and sexuality is both complex and profound. Yet scholars tend not to study sexuality across legal contexts. Discussions about sexual liberty and the rights of sexual minorities tend not to include much focus on issues such as rape, sexual violence and the ‘bad of sex’. Similarly, discussions about sexual harm, for example those that reflect on the sexual oppression of women and children, do not typically emphasize theories or legal approaches that are overly concerned with also recognizing and accommodating the good of sex - the benefit, joy and power produced through and by sexuality. This book considers whether there can be a legal theory of human sexuality which accounts for the good of sex, but identifies and rejects the bad, an approach which ensures equality without assimilation, diversity without exclusion, and liberty without suffering?

Keywords: queer theory, gay, lesbian, same sex marriage, sexual assault, Raz, liberty, iconoclasm, obscenity, pornography, sex work, feminist legal theory, consent