Abstract
Freedom and Shackles: Legal Issues Concerning Sexual Orientation and Same-Sex Partnership is a valuable addition to the legal scholarship on sexual orientation and same-sex marriage. 1 The weight of the book’s legal research and analysis is devoted to China. However, the book is written from a comparative law perspective and includes cases, legislation, and practices from other jurisdictions in its analysis. According to the introduction, 2 the title of the book derives from a powerful line in Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s master treatise, The Social Contract : ‘Man is born free; but everywhere he is in chains.’ 3 The title captures the central theme of this book and embodies the current sentiment in China’s discourse on homosexuality and same-sex marriage, namely the tension between the awakening sense of freedom invoked by the discussion of sexual orientation and same-sex marriage in the context of of sexual rights and the ‘chains’ or ‘shackles’ imposed by the moral and legal norms deeply embedded in Chinese society.
Published Version
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