Mill and Porn

Clare McGlynn, Durham Law School, and Ian Ward, University of Newcastle upon Tyne, are publishing Would John Stuart Mill Have Regulated Pornography? in the Journal of Law and Society (2014). Here is the 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 thinking on sex, sexual activity and on the regulation of prostitution, reveal an altogether more nuanced and activist approach. In this light, we argue that John Stuart Mill would almost certainly have recommended the regulation of some forms of pornography.

Download the article from SSRN at the link.