Law organizes all social relations from the mundane to the complex and its role in structuring and controlling sexuality in Canadian society cannot be overstated. In historical and contemporary times, the institution of law has been deployed as a technology of state governance that intervenes in our erotic and intimate lives. Yet laws, and the system by which they are enforced, are socially negotiated and represent the values and interests of some groups of people over others. Pierre Bourdieu deploys the term “juridical field” to refer to the patterns, activities and structures that govern the “world of law” arguing that law operates as an apparatus like a magnetic field that stealthy produces rules and systems that continuously constitutes itself. This course will deploy a feminist socio-legal theoretical paradigm to consider how laws that govern sexuality are reflective of larger power relations that dictate normative sexuality and punish those who transgress normativity. Learning modules will focus on specific legal case studies involving the governance of sexuality including pivotal Charter Reference Cases on Polygamy (2011); Prostitution (1990); and Same-Sex marriage (2004).

*This reading list is subject to change and will be finalized prior to the start of the course.

Module 1: Course Introduction
Minaker, Joanne. (2006). “Sluts and Slags: The Censuring of the Erring Female.” In Criminalizing Women. Edited by Gillian Balfour and Elizabeth Comack, 79-94. Fernwood Publishing.

Module 2: Theoretical Foundations
Duggan, L. (1989/2006). “Sex Panics.” In Sex Wars: Sexual Dissent and Political Culture. Edited by Lisa Duggan and Nan Hunter, 71-98. Routledge.
Levit, Verchick, Minow, Verchick, Robert R. M., & Minow, Martha. (2016). Feminist legal theory:
a primer (Second edition.). New York University Press. Chapter 1: Feminist Legal Theory,
p. 11-40.

Module 3: Law as a Socially Negotiated Process
Halperin-Kaddari, R., & Freeman, M. A. (2016). Backlash Goes Global: Men’s Groups, Patriarchal Family Policy, and the False Promise of Gender-Neutral Laws. Canadian Journal of Women and the Law, 28(1), 182–210. https://doi.org/10.3138/cjwl.28.1.182
Anleu, S. & Gill, A. (2009). Law and Sociology. In Routledge Handbook of Socio-Legal Theory and Methods. Edited by Naomi Creutzfeldt, Mark Mason, and Kirsten McConnachie, 1st ed.,
149-61. Routledge, 2020.

Module 4: Consent & Youth Sexuality
Dauda, C. L. (2010). Sex, Gender, and Generation: Age of Consent and Moral Regulation in Canada. Politics & Policy (Statesboro, Ga.), 38(6), 1159–1185.
https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1747-1346.2010.00273.x
Hunt, K. (2009). Saving the children: (Queer) youth sexuality and the age of consent in Canada. Sexuality Research & Social Policy, 6(3), 15–33.
https://doi.org/10.1525/srsp.2009.6.3.15

Module 5: Bodily Autonomy Reproductive Rights: R. v. Morgentaler
Burnett, Margaret et al. (2019). “A History of Women’s Reproductive Rights in Canada.” Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology Canada, 41, no. 5: 713-XXX.
Akbari, M. (2021). Forced Sterilization of Indigenous Women: An Act of Genocide or Policing Women’s Bodies?. York University Criminological Review, 3(1). Retrieved from
https://csri.journals.yorku.ca/index.php/default/article/view/113

Module 6: Case Study, Marital Rape: R. v. Walsh
Vayeghan, M. (2016). Case Commentary: R. v Walsh and the “Myth” of Marital Rape. Canadian Journal of Women and the Law, 28(1), 230–240. https://doi.org/10.3138/cjwl.28.1.230
Koshan, J. (2017). The Criminalization of Marital Rape and Law Reform in Canada. In Randall, Koshan and Nyaundi eds., The Right to Say No: Marial Rape: 139-164.

Module 7: Case Study, Prostitution: Bedford v. Canada
Valverde, Mariana. (2018). “Canadian Feminism and Sex Work Law: A Cautionary Tale. In Red Light Labour. Sex Work Regulation, Agency, and Resistance. Edited by Elya M. Durisin, Emily van der Meulen and Chris Bruckert, 247-255. Toronto University Press.
Gacek, James and Richard Jochelson. (2019). Sex Work in Canada: Beginnings, Bedford, and Beyond. In Sexual Regulations and the Law: A Canadian Perspective. Edited by Richard Jochelson and James Gacek, 57-100. Demeter Press

Module 8: Case Study, Same-Sex Marriage: Reference re: Same-Sex Marriage
Hogg, P. W. (2006). Canada: The Constitution and same-sex marriage. International Journal of Constitutional Law, 4(4), 712–721. https://doi.org/10.1093/icon/mol019
Spade, D. & Willse, C. (2013). Marriage Will Never Set Us Free. Organizing Upgrade.
http://archive.organizingupgrade.com/index.php/modules-menu/beyondcapitalism/item/1002- marriage-will-never-set-us-free
Valverde, Mariana. (2006). “A New Entity in the History of Sexuality: The Respectable Same-Sex Couple.” Feminist Studies, 32, no. 1: 155-162.

Module 9: Case Study, The Charter Reference on Polygamy (2010-2011)
Beaman, Lori. Introduction: Is Polygamy Inherently Harmful? In Polygamy’s Rights and Wrongs, edited by Gillian Galder and Lori G. Beaman, 1-20. UBC Press. 2014.
Lenon, Suzanne. “Intervening in the Context of White Settler Colonialism: West Coast LEAF, Gender Equality and the Polygamy Reference.” Oñati Socio-Legal Series 6, no. 6(2016):1324-47.

Module 10: Criminalizing HIV
McClelland, A. (2019). “Lock this whore up”: Legal violence and flows of information precipitating personal violence against people criminalised for HIV-related crimes in Canada. European Journal of Risk Regulation, 10(1), 132–147. https://doi.org/10.1017/err.2019.20
Snyder, E., & Iyioha, I. O. (2020). Indigenous feminist legal theory: A multi-juridical analysis of the limits of law on Indigenous women’s health in relation to HIV in Canada. In Women’s Health and the Limits of Law (1st ed., pp. 212–231). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781351002387-8

Your personalized Course Material list, including digital and physical textbooks, are available through the SFU Bookstore website by simply entering your Computing ID at: shop.sfu.ca/course-materials/my-personalized-course-materials.

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