Home | Databases | WorldLII | Search | Feedback Edited Legal Collections Data

Tuerkheimer, Deborah --- "Sexual agency and the unfinished work of rape law reform" [2019] ELECD 107; in West, Robin; Bowman, G. Cynthia (eds), "Research Handbook on Feminist Jurisprudence" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2019) 166

Book Title: Research Handbook on Feminist Jurisprudence

Editor(s): West, Robin; Bowman, G. Cynthia

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN: 9781786439680

Section: Chapter 9

Section Title: Sexual agency and the unfinished work of rape law reform

Author(s): Tuerkheimer, Deborah

Number of pages: 18

Abstract/Description:

For half a century, feminist legal scholars and activists have worked to reconstruct the retrograde foundations of rape law. In place of chastity protection, I argue that sexual agency underpins the modern law of rape. I begin by describing the construct of sexual agency, emphasizing how feminist insights have enriched the familiar ideal of autonomy in ways that bear directly on sexual violence. I then apply the theory of sexual agency to three areas of relatively successful law reform efforts – substantive, evidentiary and procedural. I also consider the limits of rape law’s progress, again by reference to sexual agency. The agency frame recasts how a set of necessary reforms has fallen short of its intended target. I consider one final challenge to women’s agency that has become increasingly salient in the current #MeToo moment – acquiesced-to (unwanted consensual) sex. I conclude that, while the promise of female sexual agency remains unfulfilled, it should endure as the desideratum of reform.