PHL 612 Lecture 9: PHL 612 - 9
28 Sep 2017
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Document Summary
The focus of this module is on the issues arising in the case of bedford v. canada, decided by the. The litigants challenged criminal code provisions impacting on adult sex work. They argued that the combination of, and interaction between, bans on street soliciting, brothels and people living off the avails of prostitution, generated substantial and serious risks to the health, safety and lives of sex trade workers. The judges of the supreme court reached a consensus decision in favour of the litigants, holding that the criminal codeprovisions were unconstitutional. Feminist legal theory had a prominent influence on arguments presented in the case. The issues at stake in the case intersect with broader debates found in the philosophical literature, where arguments based on equality rights, legal moralism, utilitarianism, and welfare paternalism are used to support policy positions. Philosophical discussions of social practices, such as prostitution, tend to combine a focus on conceptual questions with a focus on normative concerns.
