Sex, Morality and Law

Abstract

This chapter focuses on sexual legal morality and sexual ethics. In the erotic domain, Dutch practice provides an ideal testing ground for liberal theory. Since the Sexual Revolution of the 1960s, the Netherlands has been in the vanguard of sexual emancipation, providing a unique opportunity to observe the liberal model in action. The chapter analyses Dutch legal history in this field in the light of the current philosophical debate concerning the harm principle. In the public sphere liberal legal morality is to be preferred to Christian moralism and moral majoritarianism. Indeed, research among Dutch youth shows that the emancipation of their sex life and the free availability of pornography on the Internet have not brought about an increase in harmful sexual activities. In the private sphere of sexual ethics, too, the harm principle is adequate: because of its highly personal character, anything goes in erotic love, with only one limiting condition—the consent of the parties involved. This is preferable to Bataille’s sacral eroticism and Nagel’s good sex. For connoisseurs, the model of Multiple Love is recommended as a standard of perfection for non-morally good erotic love.