Criminal Law and Morality in the Age of Consent: Interdisciplinary Perspectives

This book discusses the relation between morality and politics, and morality and law, a field that has been studied for more than two thousand years The law is a part of human culture, and this touches upon a dynamic reality that is connected to the relation between nature and freedom, nature and culture. If such relations are not clearly understood, as is the case today, the relation between morality and law cannot be properly comprehended either.

The relationship between morality and criminal law must constantly evolve to meet the needs of changing times and circumstances. Social changes and new situations require new answers. And since the relationship involves criminal law, legal philosophy and legal history, interdisciplinary approaches are always needed. Featuring fifteen original contributions by legal scholars from various European and American universities, the book does not pretend to solve the complexity of the relation between morality and criminal law, but instead expresses criticism, offers some proposals and stimulates further thought.

The book tackles the topic from an interdisciplinary perspective (criminal law, constitutional law, legal philosophy and legal history, among others). As such, it appeals not only to scholars and students, but also to lawyers, policymakers, historians, theologians, philosophers and general readers who are interested in the legal, social, political and philosophical issues of our time.

Aniceto Masferrer is a Professor of Legal History and teaches legal history and comparative law at the Faculty of Law, University of Valencia, Spain He has been a Visiting Fellow or Professor at the Max Planck Institute for European Legal History (2000–2003), the University of Cambridge (2005), Harvard Law School (2006–2007), Melbourne Law School (2008), the University of Tasmania (2010), Louisiana State University – The Paul M. Hebert Law Center – (2013), George Washington University Law School and at the École Normale Supérieure – Paris (2015). He has lectured at universities around the world (France, Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, Malta, Israel, UK, Sweden, Norway, USA, Canada, Australia and New Zealand). He is the author of nine books (including his Spanish Legal Traditions: A Comparative Legal History Outline, Madrid, 2009; 2012, 2nd ed.) and the editor of twelve (including Post 9/11 and the State of Permanent Legal Emergency: Security and Human Rights in CounteringTerrorism, Springer, 2012; Counter-Terrorism, Human Rights and The Rule Of Law. Crossing Legal Boundaries in Defence of the State, Edward Elgar Publishing, 2013; La Codificación española. Una aproximación doctrinal e historiográfica a sus influencias extranjeras, y a la francesa en particular, Thomson Reuters-Aranzadi, 2014; Human Dignity of the Vulnerable in the Age of Rights: Interdisciplinary Perspectives, Springer, 2016; The Western Codification of Criminal Law: The Myth of the Predominant French Influence in Europe and America Revisited, Springer, 2018; Comparative Legal History, Edward Elgar Publishing, 2019) and around hundred book chapters/articles published in Spanish, European and American law journals. He has published extensively on criminal law from an historical and comparative perspective, as well as on the codification movement and fundamental rights in the Western legal tradition.