2006 Handbooks

This unit will introduce students to issues surrounding the legal regulation of sexuality. The unit, which will draw on feminist, post-structural and queer theories, will be divided into four interconnected parts: Histories/Sources of Oppression; Reforms/Limits; Backlash; and Queer Futures. In addition to the required reading for each class the unit provides extensive -pre-reading commentary and question sections to assist students in navigating their way through the materials and to identify links between classes. The unit will begin by providing a historical context to thinking about law and sexuality issues. Thus students will explore the relationship between law and sexuality in ancient Greece and Rome, late medieval Europe, Renaissance Europe and during the so-called 'gender revolution' of the eighteenth century. These histories will assist students in thinking about and understanding forms of legal regulation of sexuality in the contemporary. Students will then interrogate and critique the liberal law reform process through considering a series of concrete law reform issues. Thus students will explore decriminalisation, childhood sexuality, sado-masochism, and pornography ('privacy' jurisprudence) as well as anti-discrimination law reform in gay and lesbian and tansgender contexts, lesbian access to assisted reproductive services, gay and lesbian spousal (marriage) recognition and the re-sexing practices of law in the context of transgender jurisprudence ('equality' jurisprudence). Students will then consider a number of topics in the context of a contemporary 'Backlash' against gay men and lesbians. This portion of the unit will explore the dis-ease of law surrounding HIV/AIDS, issues of censorship, the emergence and operation of Homosexual Advance Defence, and the exclusion of gay men and lesbians from the military. In the final class students will conclude their study of the unit by considering what law can offer for the future.