The erotic triangle, in which two men compete for a desired woman, is a foundational archetype of Western culture. This dissertation, through its three separately-published articles, examines how this cultural archetype is manifested in law and legal structures, and the relationship between law’s erotic triangulations, gender inequality, and third-party responsibility. Each of the three articles of this dissertation focuses on a different manifestation of third-party responsibility, and each offers its own self-contained argument. At the same time, the “graphic schema” of the erotic triangle analytically enriches each of them. The erotic triangle is a “sensitive register […] for delineating relationships of power and meaning,” and using it in this context illuminates the shifting ways gender, power, and legal responsibility circulate in these male-female-male legal structures. Together, the articles suggest that law both replicates and reproduces erotic triangulations in ways that contribute to gender inequality, but also that it may be an important site for their renegotiation. The first article, A New Tortious Interference with Contractual Relations: Gender and Erotic Triangles in Lumley v. Gye, explores how the tort of interference with contractual relations was created out of a factual scenario involving an erotic triangle (two rival opera-house managers competing for the services of a renowned chanteuse). The court converted past regulations of erotic triangles (in particular, criminal conversation, which allowed a husband to bring an action against a man for sexual interference with his wife) into a new cause of action, one which removed a triangulated woman’s responsibility for breaching a contract, and instead assigned responsibility to the man who induced her to breach. While this first iteration involves the removal of responsibility from a triangulated woman, the second article, Home Rules, involves an inversion of this responsibility allocation: here responsibility is removed from a usually male wrongdoer and instead imposed upon a triangulated woman. Home Rules examines how, through a series of ordinances, local governments are imposing responsibility on female heads of household for the wrongful actions of their typically male household members. In so doing, local governments disrupt kinship structures and assert the state’s dominance over the family and intimate life. The third article, Triangulating Rape, evidences a more positive shift in responsibility. It traces the transformation of rape law as a progression from a tradition of erotic triangulation to a subversion thereof. Unlike the historical rape law triangle, in which rape is legally constructed as a wrong that one male does to another through the body of a woman; and unlike the criminal rape law triangle, in which rape is legally constructed as a wrong that one man does to the state through the body of a woman; civil actions in which women bring claims against both perpetrators of sexual assault and the third-party entities that facilitate or fail to prevent those assaults allow harmed women to assert their own subjectivity and climb out of their traditionally passive role in the erotic triangle. In so doing, this reconfigured triangulation ultimately challenges the gender status quo that produces sexual harms, and suggests that subverting the usual functioning of triangulated patterns may hold promise as a tool of social change.

This dissertation examined the relationship between support services for adult survivors of sexual assault and judicial outcomes. Specifically, this study explored survivors' willingness to participate in the judicial process. Although "victim unwilling to participate" is the primary reason given by the police for cases not progressing to prosecution, we know little about most aspects of survivors' willingness to participate in the judicial process, especially beyond initial reporting of the assault. The steps to prosecution are dependent on one another yet a survivor's willingness to participate in these steps is a fluid process. The primary research question explored was Are there clusters of survivors according to their responses to specific items on a Willingness to Participate scale? Additional research questions focused on differences among possible clusters of survivors. A semi-structured interview protocol was completed with 46 survivors of adult sexual assault. Cluster analysis was conducted and three clusters emerged. Findings suggest that support services were helpful to those who were highly willing to participate but that willingness was insufficient to influence judicial outcomes. Future research concerning judicial outcomes in sexual assault cases should focus on strategies to dispel myths about rape among survivors, within the judicial system, and with potential jurors as a means of improving both survivor participation and judicial outcomes.

Despite the extensive research conducted on sexual harassment, very little work has focused on the legal and psychological constructions of women's resistance to sexual harassment. In exploring the legal and psychological constructions of women's resistance to sexual harassment, we are confronted with salient issues pertaining to the determination of the welcomeness requirement which call for a reflection. A key characteristic of sexual harassment is that it is unwanted by the recipient. It is for each person to decide what behaviour is acceptable to them and what they regard as offensive. Thus, although there is general agreement about what can constitute sexual harassment, the experience of sexual harassment is subjective in nature and the precise quantification of workplace sexual harassment is problematic. The present study aims to: (a) identify the reasoning/history behind the "unwelcomeness/unwanted" requirement, (b) assess the reasonableness of· the requirement of "unwelcomeness/unwanted" conduct, taking into account the various pieces of legislation and case law, (c) determine how the courts have interpreted this requirement and what factors are looked at, (d) determine whether the test is subjective or objective, (e) identify the struggle and debilitating effects sexual harassment has on women in the workplace. The results of this study will assist in gaining knowledge and understanding of the concept of "unwelcomeness/unwanted" conduct in sexual harassment cases and the effects it has on the victim which will go a long way in assisting management in any business to effectively implement strategies and disciplines to manage the problem of sexual harassment in the workplace. / Private Law / LLM (Labour Law)

Despite the extensive research conducted on sexual harassment, very little work has focused on the legal and psychological constructions of women's resistance to sexual harassment. In exploring the legal and psychological constructions of women's resistance to sexual harassment, we are confronted with salient issues pertaining to the determination of the welcomeness requirement which call for a reflection. A key characteristic of sexual harassment is that it is unwanted by the recipient. It is for each person to decide what behaviour is acceptable to them and what they regard as offensive. Thus, although there is general agreement about what can constitute sexual harassment, the experience of sexual harassment is subjective in nature and the precise quantification of workplace sexual harassment is problematic. The present study aims to: (a) identify the reasoning/history behind the "unwelcomeness/unwanted" requirement, (b) assess the reasonableness of· the requirement of "unwelcomeness/unwanted" conduct, taking into account the various pieces of legislation and case law, (c) determine how the courts have interpreted this requirement and what factors are looked at, (d) determine whether the test is subjective or objective, (e) identify the struggle and debilitating effects sexual harassment has on women in the workplace. The results of this study will assist in gaining knowledge and understanding of the concept of "unwelcomeness/unwanted" conduct in sexual harassment cases and the effects it has on the victim which will go a long way in assisting management in any business to effectively implement strategies and disciplines to manage the problem of sexual harassment in the workplace. / Private Law / LLM (Labour Law)