This book offers new perspectives on two key themes: the criminal law of sexual consent and the temporalities of law. It uses detailed feminist analysis to investigate how the kinds of time produced by statutes and court decisions are vital to constructing the gendered, liberal, legal subject. By shedding light upon a contested and multi-faceted legal issue, it demonstrates that more expansive temporalities are the precondition for a richer, relational understanding of consent. This book’s fresh approach to sexual consent is developed using the law of England and Wales but is relevant to all jurisdictions where consent is an element of sexual offences law. Its distinctive approach to legal temporalities has the potential to be applied to other areas of law, providing insight into both current law and possibilities for reform.

"Derry’s engaging insights and amenable style make her book an accessible and intelligible analysis of the legal temporalities of sexual consent. Her work will undoubtedly become essential reading in the area of consent law, particularly from feminist and queer perspectives." - Feminist Legal Studies

"Derry’s warning, moreover, is one that no jurisdiction can afford to ignore: left unaddressed, legal temporalities will continue to shift, more slowly, more conservatively, and in ways that risk entrenching rather than dismantling structural inequality. At a time of significant backlash against women’s rights, that is not a warning we can afford to ignore." - Law, Culture and the Humanities