Title
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
7-23-2008
Abstract
The article defends the now fairly conventional liberal reform position that consent ought to be the demarcation between rape and non-criminal sex, responding to both radical feminist and modern queer theoretic arguments that problematize it. It then criticizes liberal arguments that legitimize virtually all consensual sex, leaving all of it relatively insulated not only against criminalization but also against moral and political critique. Consensual sex can be wanted or unwanted, and when unwanted, it can be harmful in ways that cannot be recognized by liberal understandings of consensual sex. Lastly, the article defends this claim, again, against both radical feminist and queer theoretic critiques that for opposing reasons seek to undermine the distinction between unwanted and wanted consensual sex.
Scholarly Commons Citation
West, Robin, "Sex, Law and Consent" (2008). Georgetown Law Faculty Working Papers. 71.
https://scholarship.law.georgetown.edu/fwps_papers/71
Included in
Criminal Law Commons, Jurisprudence Commons, Law and Gender Commons, Law and Society Commons, Sexuality and the Law Commons