Feminist Approaches to the Regulation of Sex Work: Patterns in Transnational Governance Feminist Law Making

Worldwide, through the effective spread of feminist ideas and modes of governance, two feminist regulatory approaches to sex work/prostitution became widely accepted – abolitionism and decriminalization. This article argues that both feminist approaches are characterized by inherent flaws and end up harming the most vulnerable sex workers. As a possible alternative to both of these regulatory approaches, this essay uses the Israeli case study to propose a hybrid approach to the regulation of sex work. This approach consist of a formally declared abolitionist goal with wide informal characteristics of decriminalization. I argue that such an apparently contradictory approach can be beneficial, in certain circumstances, to sex workers, compared with both of the traditional governance feminist approaches. The hybrid approach is far from perfect, but in an imperfect world, it can possibly lead to a better outcome – from the perspective of the most vulnerable sex workers – than that achieved by the two distinct feminist approaches. The article stresses the advantages that are potentially embedded in a policy intended to create a gap between law in books and law in action, and explores why transnational governance feminist regulatory stances tend to reject this regulatory approach.