Sex and Self-Ownership: Essays on Consent and the Criminal Law

— —

Dr Jesse Wall (Associate Professor, Faculty of Law, Associate Professor, Faculty of Law, University of Auckland)

Sex and Self-Ownership

Essays on Consent and the Criminal Law

Dr Jesse Wall (Associate Professor, Faculty of Law, Associate Professor, Faculty of Law, University of Auckland)

$237.95

Hardback

Not in-store but you can order this
How long will it take?

Availability Information

We source books from suppliers in Australia and overseas. For books we don't currently have in stock, the time it takes to get them from our suppliers can vary widely - from a few days to a few months - so we check each book with each supplier to determine the expected time it will take to be supplied to us.

We then advise you accordingly. If the time taken to get any book is too long for you, you can let us know and we will cancel or adjust your order, and refund as required.

To find out the anticipated arrival time for specific items prior to ordering, please contact us by phone or email:

Phone +61 2 9264 3111, or 1800 4 BOOKS (1800 4 26657) if outside Sydney:
option 1 Abbey's Bookshop (Crime, History, Science, Kids & more) • info@abbeys.com.au
option 2 Language Book Centre (ESL & Foreign Languages) • language@abbeys.com.au
option 3 Galaxy Bookshop (Sci-fi, Fantasy, Romance, Graphic Novels) • sf@galaxybooks.com.au

QTY:

English

Oxford University Press
22 July 2025

Ethics & moral philosophy; Sexual abuse & harassment; Jurisprudence & philosophy of law; Criminal law & procedure

Since the criminal law acquits a person who mistakenly believed that another person consented to the sex that they forced upon them: 'rape is not prohibited; it is regulated' (to borrow Mackinnon's phrase). This book is concerned with the legal category of 'the exculpatory mistaken belief in consent', why this category ought to be narrowed, and how it can be narrowed without departing from criminal law's retributive morality and principles of criminalisation. The book calls for three reforms of the criminal law. First, sex itself should be a pro tanto wrong, where consent can justify the wrong or a mistaken belief in consent can excuse the wrong. Second, consent ought to be defined in terms of the objective words and overt actions that express a subjective attitude. Third, whether the defendant had an exculpatory mistaken belief ought to be determined solely by having regard to the steps the defendant had taken to ascertain whether the complainant consented. These calls are predicated on a range of philosophical inquiries, including explanations of: how all sex instrumentalizes and objectifies another person; how consent performs of trilogy of functions by representing a choice, expressing a person's interests, and by empowering a person to change their normative relationship with another person; how a person can be blameworthy for acting against moral reasons even when they were unaware those reasons applied to their moral situation; and how we can have a justified belief in the mental state of another person.

By: Dr Jesse Wall (Associate Professor Faculty of Law Associate Professor Faculty of Law University of Auckland)
Imprint: Oxford University Press
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 241mm, Width: 163mm, Spine: 19mm
Weight: 515g
ISBN: 9780198876267
ISBN 10: 0198876262
Pages: 240
Publication Date: 22 July 2025
Audience: Professional and scholarly , College/higher education , Undergraduate , Further / Higher Education
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active

1: The Problem with Sex in General 2: A Prop in Someone Else's Fantasy 3: Choice Under Pressure 4: That Was Then, This Is Now 5: General Reasons Not to Have Sex 6: Justifying and Excusing Sex 7: The Expressive Consent Dilemma 8: I Don't Know About You Conclusion

Jesse Wall is an Associate Professor of Law at the University of Auckland. He has previously held academic positions at Merton College, University of Oxford, and the University of Otago. Jesse completed his postgraduate qualifications at Pembroke College, Oxford, where he was studying as a Rhodes Scholar, completing the BCL, and then writing his doctoral thesis under the supervision of Professor Jonathan Herring. As an undergraduate at the University of Otago, Jesse studied toward a Bachelor of Laws and a Bachelor of Arts, majoring in Philosophy. Sex and Self-Ownership is Jesse's second monograph, after Being and Owning (Oxford University Press, 2015).