cover image AIDS and the Sexuality of Law

AIDS and the Sexuality of Law

Joe Rollins. Palgrave MacMillan, $52.95 (256pp) ISBN 978-0-312-24006-6

Historically, court cases involving AIDS and HIV have featured language that is""full of gaps, absences, missed opportunities and unarticulated possibilities."" Or so argues Rollins, an assistant professor of political science at Queens College and a contributing author to the Encyclopedia of AIDS. Understanding how these""silences"" affect legal discourse is the premise behind his latest book, a rigorous survey of federal appellate case opinions from 1985 to 1995. Beginning with the assertion that scientific knowledge about AIDS remains""contested"" and""unstable,"" Rollins argues that scientific uncertainty has provided the""dubious foundations for legal reasoning."" The result, he says, is that the problematic intersection of AIDS, law and science is best read through the""lenses of irony."" Such""ironic jurisprudence"" forms the foundation for Rollins's analysis of several key AIDS/HIV legal issues, including blood donation, employment, the segregation of infected prison inmates and the regulation of pornographic theaters. By balancing dense, complex legal theory and interpretation with real-life case studies, Rollins produces a worthy addition to the growing body of literature examining the legal constructs of AIDS and HIV. Rollins admits that the cases he analyzes here predate recent developments in the detection of HIV and the treatment of AIDS, yet, by and large, his observations remain relevant since the process they illustrate--how AIDS and sexuality are constructed by legal language--is universal and ongoing. This allusive study should appeal to both legal scholars and academics working in gender studies.