The Dancing Nude: Can Liberals Mandate Modesty? October 27, 2006

Modesty is a traditional ethical virtue, an important form of privacy, and a useful strategy for protecting privacy. General modesty is left to ethics, but sexual and bodily modesty are regulated by law. Are the laws mandating modesty justifiable in a liberal society? To consider this question, Anita Allen-Castellitto (Law and Philosophy, University of Pennsylvania) examines the U.S. and Canadian Supreme Courts' nude dancing cases. Though in strikingly different ways, Canadian and U.S. approaches both waffle between moralism and Mill's Harm principle.