Would John Stuart Mill have Regulated Pornography?

McGlynn, C.; Ward, I.

doi:10.1111/j.1467-6478.2014.00683.x

Would John Stuart Mill have Regulated Pornography?

McGlynn, C.; Ward, I.

Authors

Professor Clare McGlynn clare.mcglynn@durham.ac.uk
Professor

I. Ward

Abstract

John Stuart Mill dominates contemporary pornography debates where he is routinely invoked as an authoritative defence against regulation. This article, by contrast, argues that a broader understanding of Mill's ethical liberalism, his utilitarianism, and his feminism casts doubt over such an assumption. New insights into Mill's approach to sex, sexual activity, and the regulation of prostitution reveal an altogether more nuanced and activist approach. We conclude that John Stuart Mill would almost certainly have accepted certain forms of pornography regulation and, in this light, we argue that Mill can provide the foundation for new, liberal justifications of some forms of pornography regulation.

Citation

McGlynn, C., & Ward, I. (2014). Would John Stuart Mill have Regulated Pornography?. Journal of Law and Society, 41(4), 500-522. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-6478.2014.00683.x

Journal Article Type	Article
Acceptance Date	Aug 4, 2014
Online Publication Date	Nov 27, 2014
Publication Date	Dec 1, 2014
Deposit Date	Jan 5, 2015
Publicly Available Date	Jan 13, 2015
Journal	Journal of Law and Society
Print ISSN	0263-323X
Electronic ISSN	1467-6478
Publisher	Wiley
Peer Reviewed	Peer Reviewed
Volume	41
Issue	4
Pages	500-522
DOI	https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-6478.2014.00683.x
Related Public URLs	http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2457123

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Copyright Statement
This is the accepted version of the following article: McGlynn, C. and Ward, I. (2014), Would John Stuart Mill have Regulated Pornography?. Journal of Law and Society, 41 (4): 500–522, which has been published in final form at http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-6478.2014.00683.x. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance With Wiley Terms and Conditions for self-archiving.