We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
To save content items to your account,
please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies.
If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account.
Find out more about saving content to .
To save content items to your Kindle, first ensure no-reply@cambridge.org
is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings
on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part
of your Kindle email address below.
Find out more about saving to your Kindle.
Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations.
‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi.
‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.
The chapter discusses cultural and legal varieties in the definitions of ‘indecent’ and ‘immoral’ arts, as well as the varieties in our understanding of ‘obscenity’. It questions the existence of a universal standard of morality, pointing to the influence of the Platonic perception of art on UNESCO and other UN bodies and agencies. The chapter discusses two hard cases as case studies: first, extremist contemporary visual arts and performances such as those involving bodily harm and the so-called cadaver art, and second, child pornoraphy, specifically in the Japanese manga tradition and the particular genre of Lolicons. The legal challenges arising therein are largely premised on a discussion of the contextuality of moral considerations (as evidenced for instance in temporal and regional varieties and the variations of the ‘average person’ standard in domestic jurisdictions, including even in the acceptance of the artistic genre of the nude in painting and sculpture ). In international law this debate is translated into a lack of consensus in defining universal standards and an extraordinary variety of domestic standards (for instance, in relation to the ‘average person’ morality standards), which allows for broader State discretion.
Recommend this
Email your librarian or administrator to recommend adding this to your organisation's collection.