- This event has passed.
CEPPA Talk – Hallie Liberto (University of Maryland)
Title: ‘Consent and the Question of Dynamics’
Abstract: In this paper, I first argue that ârights-waivingâ is not an accurate, general description of the operation persons perform when they grant permissive consent. It fails to describe the change to the structure of the normative world that I call authority-retaining permissive consent. This is the kind of permissive consent we use in cases of sexual consent, medical consent, consent to a visitor in the home, consent to another reading oneâs diary or manuscript â any type of consent wherein the consenting agent retains the normative power to withdraw consent throughout the event. âRights-waivingâ gets the operation wrong, obscuring the real dynamics of rights. Second, I argue that the inaccurate account of the operation of consent gives rise to a variety of other misconceptions about how consent works and what it means for an act to be nonconsensual, especially in the realm of sexual ethics.