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Sexuality and the Law

Osgoode Hall Law Journal

Articles 1 - 8 of 8

Full-Text Articles in Law

Revisiting The “Private Use Exception” To Canada’S Child Pornography Laws: Teenage Sexting, Sex-Positivity, Pleasure, And Control In The Digital Age, Lara Karaian, Dillon Brady May 2020

Revisiting The “Private Use Exception” To Canada’S Child Pornography Laws: Teenage Sexting, Sex-Positivity, Pleasure, And Control In The Digital Age, Lara Karaian, Dillon Brady

Osgoode Hall Law Journal

In R v Sharpe, the Supreme Court of Canada read in a “private use exception” to the offence of possessing child pornography. The Court reasoned that youths’ self-created expressive material and private recordings of lawful sexual activity—created by, or depicting the accused and held by the accused exclusively for private use—would pose little or no risk to children and may in fact be of significance to adolescent self-fulfillment, self-actualization, sexual exploration, and identity. Fundamental changes in the technological, social, sexual, and legal landscape since Sharpe have resulted in a lack of clarity regarding the exception’s scope. Federal and provincial police …

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Book Review: Vicarious Kinks: S/M In The Socio-Legal Imaginary,
 By Ummni Khan, Kyle Kirkup Sep 2015

Book Review: Vicarious Kinks: S/M In The Socio-Legal Imaginary,
 By Ummni Khan, Kyle Kirkup

Osgoode Hall Law Journal

Book review of Vicarious Kinks: S/M In The Socio-Legal Imaginary,
by Ummni Khan.

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Men In The Place Of Women, From Butler To Little Sisters; Gay Male Pornography: An Issue Of Sex Discrimination, By Christopher N. Kendall, Leslie Green Oct 2005

Men In The Place Of Women, From Butler To Little Sisters; Gay Male Pornography: An Issue Of Sex Discrimination, By Christopher N. Kendall, Leslie Green

Osgoode Hall Law Journal

No abstract provided.

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Honest Beliefs, Credible Lies, And Culpable Awareness: Rhetoric, Inequality, And Mens Rea In Sexual Assault, Lucinda Vandervort Oct 2004

Honest Beliefs, Credible Lies, And Culpable Awareness: Rhetoric, Inequality, And Mens Rea In Sexual Assault, Lucinda Vandervort

Osgoode Hall Law Journal

The exculpatory rhetorical power of the term "honest belief" continues to invite reliance on the bare credibility of belief in consent to determine culpability in sexual assault. In law, however, only a comprehensive analysis of mens rea, including an examination of the material facts and circumstances of which the accused was aware, demonstrates whether a "belief' in consent was or was not reckless or wilfully blind. An accused's "honest belief" routinely begs this question, leading to a truncated analysis of criminal responsibility and error. The problem illustrates how easily old rhetoric perpetuates assumptions that no longer have a place in …

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Lesbians, Gay Men, And The Canadian Charter Of Rights And Freedoms, Brenda Cossman Jul 2002

Lesbians, Gay Men, And The Canadian Charter Of Rights And Freedoms, Brenda Cossman

Osgoode Hall Law Journal

The legacy of the first twenty years of the Charter for lesbians and gay men is a contradictory one of victories and defeats. At the level of doctrine, strategy, and politics, both the victories and defeats have been precarious and contradictory. While gaining formal equality rights, lesbians and gay men have not been able to secure rights to sexual freedom. And while formal equality has displaced the heteronormativity that denied legal recognition and subjectivity to lesbians and gay men, this formal equality has come at a cost. Lesbians and gay men are being reconstituted in law: some are being newly …

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The Perils Of Poverty: Prostitutes' Rights, Police Misconduct, And Poverty Law, Ray Kuszelewski, Dianne L. Martin Jul 1997

The Perils Of Poverty: Prostitutes' Rights, Police Misconduct, And Poverty Law, Ray Kuszelewski, Dianne L. Martin

Osgoode Hall Law Journal

This article is divided in two parts. In Part I, Ray Kuszelewski details the history of setbacks in representing street prostitutes faced by community-based initiatives at Parkdale Community Legal Services (PCLS). It is a personal, anecdotal, account of the clinic's evolutionary role in tackling the perils of poverty for street prostitutes. In Part II, Dianne Martin complements the first section by addressing the specific problem of police misconduct. The commentary is historical and theoretical in examining prior efforts at reform and argues for the development of a new, collaborative approach. The context is local and particularized in a community legal …

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Unmanly Diversions: The Construction Of The Homosexual Body (Politic) In English Law, Carl F. Stychin Jul 1994

Unmanly Diversions: The Construction Of The Homosexual Body (Politic) In English Law, Carl F. Stychin

Osgoode Hall Law Journal

In this article, the author interrogates the construction of gay male sexuality in legal and popular discourse. Focusing on two events-the decision of the House of Lords in Brown which upheld convictions of sadomasochists for assault, and publicity surrounding a serial killer of gay men in Britain-he argues that gay men are discursively constructed around the concepts of addiction, seduction, and contagion. Through the manipulation of these concepts, a linkage is created between sexual acts, sexual identities, the destruction of the gay male body, and a threat to the health and safety of the body politic as a whole.

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Paradise Lost, Paradox Revisited: The Implications Of Familial Ideology For Feminist, Lesbian, And Gay Engagement To Law, Shelley A. M. Gavigan Jul 1993

Paradise Lost, Paradox Revisited: The Implications Of Familial Ideology For Feminist, Lesbian, And Gay Engagement To Law, Shelley A. M. Gavigan

Osgoode Hall Law Journal

In this article the author addresses the theoretical and political challenges issued to feminists and feminist scholarship by recent debates and litigation concerning "family" and "family-based" benefits. The argument proceeds in four parts: first, the discussion is relocated within socialist feminist theory. The implications of the qualified pro-family stance in the critiques advanced or influenced by women of colour is considered next, followed by an examination of some proposals to extend the definition of "spouse" and "family" to lesbian and gay relationships. The author is critical of both "critiques" and illustrates with reference to Canadian welfare and immigration law that …

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