CFP: 'Sex between Law and Morality' IVR Special Workshop

Call for Papers

IVR World Congress in Istambul,  June 28 – July 3, 2026 

Special Workshop "Sex between Law and Morality"

"Sexual autonomy is one of the most important as well as fragile aspects of human lives. Any violation of it is perceived as a serious moral wrong, often deserving of criminal punishment. However, the understanding of what constitutes sexual autonomy and what can infringe on it is subject to dynamic change in response to various social shifts. Questions about consent limits, implications of unequal power dynamics for sexual relationships or morally grey areas of sex remain fundamentally relevant for both philosophy and law.

This workshop invites contributions that explore sex and sexual autonomy from the perspective of moral philosophy, ethics, feminist studies, and legal theory. Papers may engage in a critique of existing frameworks regarding sexual ethics, analyse challenges arising for the protection of sexual autonomy in law or contribute to debates regarding so-called “grey rape”. The aim of the workshop is to foster careful philosophical analysis and provide a forum for exploring how current understandings of sex, consent, and sexual autonomy can be defended, reinterpreted, or contested in light of contemporary political and legal challenges.

Suggested topics include (but are not limited to):

The limits of criminalisation: how far can we go in the protection of sexual autonomy?

Ethics and legal regulation of sexual relations in liberal and illiberal frameworks

Feminist approaches and critiques of unequal power dynamics in sexual ethics

The scope of sexual consent and its grey areas

Folk understanding of sex: experimental jurisprudence in studies on sexual ethics

Is there a right to sex?

#MeToo: what are the lasting implications of the movement?

Ethics of belief and epistemology in sexual relationships"

Organizational Information

Convenors: Klaudyna Horniczak (Jagiellonian University), Maciej Juzaszek (University of Silesia in Katowice), and Karolina Śliwecka (Jagiellonian University).

Contact: [email protected]

Abstracts of no more than 500 words should be submitted no later than June 10, 2026, to:

[email protected]

Notifications of acceptance will be sent on a rolling basis, no later than June 12 2026. Applicants are kindly reminded of the registration deadlines: regular registration ends on April 30, 2026, and late registration closes on June 15, 2026. https://ivr2026istanbul.org/registration/