Legal Temporalities of Sexual Consent

Derry, Caroline (2025). Legal Temporalities of Sexual Consent. Edinburgh, UK: Edinburgh University Press.

URL: https://edinburghuniversitypress.com/book-legal-te...

Abstract

This book offers a reassessment of the criminal law on sexual consent in England and Wales through exploration of the temporalities it depends upon, sustains, and produces. Using detailed feminist analysis, the book sheds new light on why the current law is problematic both theoretically and in practice. Law’s temporal constructions, underpinned by the presumed timing of heterosexual intercourse, are vital to producing its normative liberal subject: the rational, autonomous (male, heterosexual) individual. Thus the criminal courts inevitably fail those who exist outside those norms.

Temporal analysis offers a fruitful approach to evaluating potential reforms, demonstrating that more expansive temporalities are the precondition for a richer, relational understanding of consent. The book’s feminist approach is sensitive to the nuances of lesbian, trans and heterosexual experiences and situates the criminal law within its wider social and cultural contexts. It offers a fresh lens through which to explore consent law, which has the potential to be applied to other areas of criminal law and in other jurisdictions.

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