Ardor in the Court!: Sex and the Law

Steve Pitt is a Toronto-based freelance writer and an award-winning journalist. He has written many young adult and children's books, including Day of the Flying Fox: The True Story of World War II Pilot Charley Fox.

This fascinating book looks at how the world has attempted to use law to
control libido over the past few centuries. Author Jeffrey Miller, a
practising lawyer and legal columnist, has organized the book by law
type. Chapter titles include “Consenting Adults, More or Less,”
“All in and Beyond the Family,” “Beyond Marriage and the
Missionary Position,” “Persons Public, Persons Private,” “I Know
It When I See It,” “The Wages of Sin,” “Crime and
Controversy,” and “You Say ‘Coquette,’ I Say ‘Harlot.’”

Miller discusses 163 different cases and explains each one in a way
that allows the reader to attempt to predict what the judgment will be
before the segment is concluded. The reader will find that court
decisions are often a better window on the kind of society that the
defendant is living in than a portrait of the defendant as a lawbreaker.
For example, in 1656 a Boston sea captain was sentenced to a day in the
stocks for kissing his wife in public after a three-year voyage. Canada
has had its share of zealots as well. In 1900, a male cabaret singer in
Montreal was convicted of “an immoral performance” for touching his
chest as a “kind of lascivious invitation” while singing on stage.
One can only wonder what the same court would have thought of a Michael
Jackson or Madonna concert. Just for added spice, Miller throws in
quotes from personalities as diverse as Pierre Elliot Trudeau and Rodney
Dangerfield.

If you are casting around for some well-researched legal history
written in a droll, entertaining style, this book is a definite keeper.