Interesting Legal Articles

You never know what will appear in legal journals.

One recent article from the Oxford Journal of Legal Studies:

Why Sexual Penetration Requires Justification

MICHELLE MADDEN DEMPSEY
University of Oxford - Worcester College
JONATHAN HERRING
University of Oxford - Social Sciences Division
Oxford Journal of Legal Studies, Vol. 27, No. 3, p. 467, 2007

Abstract:
This article defends the claim that sexual penetration is a prima facie wrong: it requires justification. We defend this claim by reference to considerations relating the use of physical force required to achieve sexual penetration, the occurrence and risk of harm posed by sexual penetration, and the negative social meaning of sexual penetration in patriarchal societies. The step we take in this article is a preliminary part of a larger project. We are not here directly concerned with questions of criminalisation; we aim simply to map the moral landscape of sexual penetration.

By the way, they're not talking about sex without consent. The top of page 2 clarifies: "The claim that sexual penetration itself calls for justification, as opposed to, say, sexual penetration without consent, will undoubtedly strike many as counterintuitive."