Max Waltman has published scholarly and popular media articles on legal challenges to sexual exploitation in prostitution and trafficking, as well as on legal challenges to pornography and sex inequality. His work covers Canada, Sweden, the United States, and international issues, and the dissertation research analyzes legal challenges to pornography, suggesting pornography to be a practice of inequality, a form of sexual exploitation, and associated with gender-based violence as well as being an obstacle to sex equality. The question is what is in the way for democracies to legally and effectively address pornography's empirically documented production and consumption harms. Different democratic frameworks in Canada, Sweden, and the U.S. are studied in detail. Waltman participates at international conferences, is consulted by legislative bodies domestically and abroad, and works with feminist groups on policy initiatives. Apart from lecturing publicly on his topic, he currently teaches political theory and comparative politics, and advises bachelor and master students. He has stayed at the University of Michigan Law School as a visiting research scholar twice during the period 2006-2008.
Articles in Peer-Reviewed and Law Review Journals
"Prohibiting Sex Purchasing and Ending Trafficking: The Swedish Prostitution Law." 33 Michigan Journal of International Law 133, 133-57 (2011) (open access) (translated into Korean).
"Sweden's Prohibition of Purchase of Sex: The Law's Reasons, Impact, and Potential." Women's Studies International Forum 34, no. 5 (2011): 449-74 (free version on SSRN).
"Rethinking Democracy: Legal Challenges to Pornography and Sex Inequality in Canada and the United States." Political Research Quarterly 63, no. 1 (2010): 218-237 (free version on SSRN) (additional podcasts available with Amy Mazur, co-editor of PRQ, Catharine MacKinnon, Kathleen Mahoney, William Hudnut, and Max Waltman).
Briefs/Submissions/Working Papers
"Ontario Disempowers Prostituted Persons: Assessing Evidence, Arguments, & Substantive Equality in Bedford v. Canada." Stockholm University Dept. of Political Science Working Paper No. 2012:1.
Petitioners et al., "[Gemensamt] Svar till Förbud mot köp av sexuell tjänst: En utvärdering 1999-2008 (SOU 2010:49) / A Response to Prohibition Against Purchase of Sexual Service: An Evaluation 1999-2008 (SOU 2010:49)." Joint submission by 12 NGOs/Individuals (Feb. 2, 2011). Download available below.
Petitioners et al., Förslag till regeringens utredning av sexköpslagen / Suggestions to the Government's Review of the Sex Purchase Act (Sweden) (2010). With 12 other NGOs/individuals (March 17, 2010). Download available below.
Selected Popular Media Publications
"Criminalize Only the Buying of Sex." Op-Ed, Room for Debate, New York Times, April 20, 2012.
"The Scars of Prostitution." Op-Ed, Toronto Star, Oct. 31, 2011.
"Evidence Shows Ending Demand Works." Op-Ed, Rabble.ca (News Site), Oct. 11, 2012.
"Stärk prostituerade personers möjlighet att kräva skadestånd" [Empower Prostituted Persons' Options for Demanding Damages]. (With MP Carina Hägg (S), MEP Eva-Britt Svensson (V), Olga Persson (SKR) et al.), Op-Ed, Göteborgs-Posten, May 10, 2011.
"Vårt förslag handlar inte om tvång" [Our Proposal is Not Compulsory]. (With SKR [Olga Persson], Gudrun Schyman, Luis Ramos-Ruggiero et al.), Op-Ed, SvD Opinion-Brännpunkt, Apr. 14, 2011.
"Prostituerade är brottsoffer" [Prostituted Persons are Crime Victims]. (With SKR [Olga Persson], Gudrun Schyman, Luis Ramos-Ruggiero et al.), Op-Ed, SvD Opinion-Brännpunkt, Apr. 9, 2011.
"Torskarna ska betala skadestånd till de prostituerade [personerna]" [The Johns Shall Pay Damages to Prostituted Persons]. (With Catharine A. MacKinnon, Gudrun Schyman, et al.), Opinion, Newsmill, Nov. 4, 2008.
"Ge skadestånd till prostitutionens offer" " [Give Damages to Victims of Prostitution]. (With MP Gudrun Schyman, Spokesperson for Feminist Initiative), Op-Ed, DN-debatt, Dagens Nyheter, July 25, 2006.
Past Event
Organizer of "Legal Challenges to Gender-Based Violence: An APSA Short Course sponsored by Law & Courts, Human Rights, and Women's Politics Research's sections." Preconference workshop held at the annual meeting for the American Political Science Ass'n (APSA), Washington DC, September 1, 2010. Twenty two (22) scheduled presenters and interlocutors including Melissa Farley, Leslie Goldstein, Neil Malamuth, Wendy Murphy, and others. See Brief content (APSA online program). Full content available below (pdf download).
Selected Conference Papers 2005 -
"The Ideological Obstacle: Charging Pornographers for Sexual Exploitation." Paper presented at the annual meeting for the Midwest Political Science Ass'n (MPSA), Chicago IL, April 11-15, 2012.
"Rethinking Democracy: Legal Challenges to Pornography & Sex Inequality; Responses to Evidence of Harm in Canada, Sweden, & the U.S. - A Civil Rights & Equality Deficit." Poster presented at the annual meeting for the American Political Science Ass'n (APSA), Toronto, Canada, Sept. 3-6, 2009 (poster; download available below) (paper at SSRN).
"The Civil Rights Equality Deficit: Legal Challenges to Pornography and Sex Inequality in Canada, Sweden, and the U.S." Paper presented at the annual meetings for the Canadian Political Science Ass'n, Ottawa, May 27-29, 2009, and the Law And Society Ass'n, Denver, CO, June 28-31, 2009.
