Your World of Legal Intelligence
 United Kingdom | +44 (0) 20 7284 8080

Book Review: Sex Trafficking: A Private Law Response

Document Cited authorities 2 Cited in Related
Vincent
DOI10.1177/0964663914538583c
Published date01 September 2014
Date01 September 2014
Subject MatterBook Reviews
SLS538583 469..484 478
Social & Legal Studies 23(3)
TSACHI KEREN-PAZ, Sex Trafficking: A Private Law Response. Abingdon: Routledge, 2013, 288 pp.,
ISBN 9780415583312, £75 (hbk).
Dealing effectively with trafficking and prostitution, particularly trafficking into prosti-
tution, remains a major concern for states. The Policing and Crime Act 2009 introduced a
new strict liability offence criminalizing the purchase of sexual services from an individ-
ual who has been subject to exploitation (section 14; section 53A Sexual Offences Act
2003). One key aim of this significant development in the criminal law was to deter those
who pay for sex, on the basis that this would be effective in reducing the numbers of
women who are trafficked into the sex industry (Home Office, 2008). In addition to this
development, an All-Party Parliamentary Group was relatively recently established in
order to explore further how to deal with the ‘global sex trade’. Significantly, the final
report recommends adopting the increasingly popular Swedish approach, which renders
paying for sexual services a criminal offence in and of itself, on the premise that pros-
titution is inherently harmful to women (APPG, 2014). Such a development was also
considered, but ultimately rejected, by the Scottish Parliament (Criminalisation of the
Purchase and Sale of Sex (Scotland) Bill).
Within this legal context of the increasing criminalization of prostitution, Sex Traf-
ficking: A Private Law Response provides an interesting, and in places controversial,
alternative approach. Keren-Paz maintains that private law has an important role to play
in responding to trafficking, and to this end, over 10 chapters, provides ‘a systematic
examination’ of the private law remedies that ‘should be available’ to victims who have
been trafficked into prostitution (p. 2). More specifically, he explores the potential civil
liability in restitution and/or tort of traffickers, the state and clients. While explicitly ‘not
a comparative study’ (p. 2), Keren-Paz...

To continue reading

Request your trial

VLEX uses login cookies to provide you with a better browsing experience. If you click on 'Accept' or continue browsing this site we consider that you accept our cookie policy. ACCEPT