About | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline
LOG IN
LOG IN

89 Calif. L. Rev. 643 (2001)
Beyond the Enforcement Principle: Sodomy Laws, Social Norms, and Social Panoptics

handle is hein.journals/calr89 and id is 653 raw text is: Beyond the Enforcement Principle: Sodomy Laws, Social Norms, and Social Panoptics Ryan Goodmant Social norms scholarship offers various conceptual models for under- standing law's capacity to produce or inhibit particular behaviors. The current literature, however, has inadequately attended to either testing these theories through empirical research or studying law's ancillary effects on social structure and individuals' lives. In response, this Article undertakes an empirical study of the social effects of an unenforced crimi- nal law: sodomy statutes. The Article examines the constitutive impact these laws have on individual identity, social relations, and conceptions of public space. This aspect of the study is based on ethnographic research conducted in South Africa before and after the country's sodomy laws were abolished. The findings of this inquiry provide the empirical basis for de- velopment of a conceptual model for understanding the process by which laws intersect with informal social surveillance to produce a regime in which lesbians and gays are ultimately encouraged to discipline them- selves. In developing this framework the Article calls for integrating these understandings of micro-level social relations into a macro-sociological perspective on the regulatory effects of law. The Article thus examines the influence exerted by the criminalization of homosexuality on other institu- tional discourses (such as religion and medicine). These connections are Copyright © 2001 California Law Review, Inc. California Law Reviw, Inc. (CLR) is a California nonprofit corporation. CLR and the authors are solely responsible for the content of their publications. t Bigelow Fellow and Lecturer in Law, University of Chicago Law School. J.D., 1999, Yale Law School; M.Phil., 1999, Sociology, Yale University; Ph.D. expected May 2001, Yale University. I wish to thank the following people for their generous advice and comments on previous drafts: Nico Besnier, Donald Braman, Edwin Cameron, Mary Anne Case, Michele Dillon, Owen Fiss, Joshua Gamson, Jack Goldsmith, Robert Gordon, Jonathan R. Nash, Eric Posner, William Rubenstein, Austin Sarat, Cass Sunstein, Ruti Teitel, Beth Van Schaack, Stanton Wheeler, James Whitman, Eric Worby, and Kenji Yoshino. I am also grateful for the financial and logistical support I received from the Camps Research Fund of Yale University; the Schell Center for Human Rights of Yale Law School; the Fund for Lesbian and Gay Studies; the Center for Applied Legal Studies, Johannesburg, South Africa; and the staff of the University of Chicago D'Angelo Law Library. I owe special thanks to Derek Jinks, without whose insights and generosity this Article would not have been possible. All errors are, however, my own. 643

What Is HeinOnline?

HeinOnline is a subscription-based resource containing thousands of academic and legal journals from inception; complete coverage of government documents such as U.S. Statutes at Large, U.S. Code, Federal Register, Code of Federal Regulations, U.S. Reports, and much more. Documents are image-based, fully searchable PDFs with the authority of print combined with the accessibility of a user-friendly and powerful database. For more information, request a quote or trial for your organization below.



Short-term subscription options include 24 hours, 48 hours, or 1 week to HeinOnline.

Purchase Access

Contact us for annual subscription options:

Contact Us

Already a HeinOnline Subscriber?

Log In

profiles profiles most