Troubling Sex

Craig’s iconoclastic approach holds the promise of revolutionizing the way sexuality is conceived and judged, in both the classroom and the court of law.

Focusing on the Supreme Court of Canada, Craig attempts to overcome the constraints of theoretical frameworks and disciplinary boundaries by pursuing a more inclusive theory of law and sexuality.

Elaine Craig is an assistant professor in the Schulich School of Law at Dalhousie University.

Robert Leckey, Faculty of Law, McGill University:
Elaine Craig’s book contributes significantly by studying sexuality transversally, across legal fields normally seen as distinct. Through provocative readings of leading cases, grounded in feminist and queer theory, it shows how the Supreme Court’s judgments embody different approaches from one field to another.

Rebecca Johnson, Faculty of Law, University of Victoria:
In this ambitious and thought-provoking work, Craig pulls into conversation the divergent threads in the Supreme Court’s exploration of sexuality: sexual assault, sexual expression, sexual harassment, sexual equality. She makes visible the tensions present in law’s struggles to distinguish between good sex and bad sex, public sex and private sex, dominant sexual practices and minority sexual practices, assimilation and tolerance, suffering and desire. Drawing on theoretical resources from across the spectrum, Craig offers a refreshingly iconoclastic approach to pressing political and moral questions about sexual integrity as a common good.