Judging sex work : Bedford and the attenuation of rights / Colton Fehr.

Vancouver : UBC Press, [2024]

©2024.

289 pages ; 23 cm.

"In Bedford, the Supreme Court struck down prohibitions against communicating in public for the purpose of sex work, living off its avails, and working from a bawdy house. Its narrow constitutional reasoning nevertheless allowed Parliament to respond by adopting the zend demandy or zNordic Modely of sex work regulation, an approach widely criticized for failing to ensure sex worker safety. "Judging Sex Work" takes stock of the Bedford decision, arguing that the constitutional issue was improperly framed. Because the most vulnerable sex workers have no realistic choice but to commit the impugned offences, they already possess a legal defence. The constitutionality of the sex work laws should therefore have been assessed by their application to those who choose sex work, an approach that militates in favour of upholding these laws based on current jurisprudence. While this approach leads to the former restrictions on sex work being constitutional, it also has the salutary effect of forcing litigants to consider a more pressing question: Can sex work be rationalized as a criminal matter at all?"-- Provided by publisher.

English

November 28, 2023

Landmark cases in Canadian law.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 252-276) and index.