Rene Guyon

It was he who drafted the model legal code for the United Nations when it was founded.

Pioneering work in both sexology and jurisprudence.

(Clay)

Rene Guyon was born at Sedan, France, in 1876. He matriculated at the University of Paris, which in 1902 conferred upon him the degree of Doctor of Law. His first publications were treatises dealing with legal problems in France. After collaborating on two novels, he fathered a book of poems, "The Pagan Easter". Between 1924 and 1931 he published three scholarly volumes: "The Metaphysics of Materialism", "The Materialistic Philosophy of Biology", and "The Materialistic Philosophy of Psychology". These were followed by "The Wide Gate", a collective title for four books, "Osiris", "Dionysus", "Prometheus", and "Eros", which challenge and revaluate many established traditions of mankind. While these were being written, studies continued for his most conspicuous work on civilization and sex: the "Studies in Sexual Ethics" ("Etude ethique d'sexuelle").

This 10 volume set was originally published in France in the early 1930s. To the best of my knowledge, only the first two volumes have been translated & published in English. The 10 volumes are:

• I. "La Legitimite des actes sexuels" ("The Ethics of Sexual Acts") was published in the US by Alfred A. Knopf in 1934 and in 1948.
• II. "La Liberte sexuelle" ("Sexual Freedom") was first published in England in 1939 and later in the US by Octagon Press, and later still by Greenwood Press.

  These first two volumes establish the principles of sexual legitimacy and of sexual freedom. In the following seven volumes Guyon proceeds to apply these principles to the major sexual problems of civilization.

• III. "Revision des institutions calssiques" ("Revision of the Classic Institutions") dissects critically the family, marriage, and their relation to human reproduction.
• IV. "Politique rationnelle de sexualite" ("A Rational Sexual Policy: Human Reproduction") continues the former discussion and advocates the subordination of marriage and the family to the 'rational procreation' of children as more important to the community and mankind at large.
• V. "Le Plaisir sexual" ("A Rational Sexual Policy: Sexual Pleasure") deals again with rational sexual policy and here Guyon contrasts the 'pro-sexual societies' of antiquity with our 'anti-sexual'Judeo-Christian civilization. He recommends pro-sexual policies and tolerance, extending the principles of legitimacy, justification, and freedom to sexual pleasure.
• VI. "Persecution des actes sexuels" ("The Persecution of Sexual Acts") reveals Guyon's juridical acumen. Its special subject is 'Les Courtisans', a term he prefers to 'prostitutes'. Guyon demonstrates the absurdity and immorality of the 'modern phobia of prostitution' and derides the persecution of individual courtesans. He points out the legal errors underlying such persecution, especially regarding the nature of the 'business of courtesans', and he calls attention to the hypocricsy as well as the danger of punishing their 'offenses'. He justifies the profession of the courtesan by invoking the principles of sexual legitimacy and freedom, while conceding, of course, their limitations demanded by logic, hygiene, and the common good.
• Volumes VII - X were possibly never published in anything but manuscript form (I'm not sure).

  VII complements "The Persecution of Sexual Acts. It deals with procurers, pimps, 'white slavers', and so on, whom Guyon calls 'intermediaries'. As the only solution of the problem involved, he suggests a complete revision of the prevailing legal and social approach. Other chapters discuss 'The Child and Sexual Acts', 'The Sexual Slavery of Minors', and 'The Bluff of Pornography'. In a section on 'The Psycho-Physiology of the So-Called Venereal Diseases', the author recommends their reclassification (syphilis being not a venereal but an infectious disease). He objects vigorously to the use of venereal disease as a 'weapon of the puritans.'

• VIII. "The Puritan Terror in Modern Society", exposes what the author chooses to call the 'puritan offensive.' Its pseudo-social and pseudo-scientific methods may often be successfus, but they are nevertheless vulnerable.
• IX outlines in detail "The Organization of a Pro-sexual society, and in a supplementary volume (X), "The Abolition of Sex Offenses in Penal Law", Guyon Presents a blueprint of the new laws demanded by an enlightened pro-sexual society.

R. Guyon travelled throughout the world, spending time in Europe, North Africa, the Sudan, Siberia, China, Indo-China, Malaysia, and the Indonesian Archipelago.

He went to Siam as a member of the Commission of Codification (for drafting new legal codes), and eventually became its chief. After completing this task (1919), he remained in Siam as legislative advisor to the Ministry of Justice and judge in the Supreme Court (until, I presume, his death).

(excerpt from the preface of the 1948 Alfred Knopf edition of "The Ethics of Sexual Acts")