The Norwegian Oscar Wilde Law

It is an interesting fact that Oscar Wilde, who was successfully prosecuted for moral crimes in the United Kingdom in 1895, would have been equally successfully prosecuted for his moral indiscretions in Norway in 2010, but would have gone free had he managed to find his way to Norway in 1895.

The new and carefully crafted law against moral indiscretions that has recently been unanimously passed by the Norwegian parliament is extraordinarily well suited for silencing outspoken social commentators, like Oscar Wilde, and is worth a closer look, both in its form and in its effect.

The "Oscar Wilde Law", which is a copy of the "Sex Purchase Law" in Sweden was used as recently as July 2010 to silence the outspoken Swedish parliamentarian Sven Otto Littorin, who resigned completely from Swedish politics on the mere suspicion that he might have broken the law.

Being fed up of Littorin's pointed political comments and biting ironies, Littorin's opponents decided to silence him once and for all by finding a prostitute who would testify that she had sold sex to Littorin, and although this was never proven to be true, the mere prospect of a lengthy court hearing on this indiscretion on Littorin's part in the middle of an election campaign was enough to make Littorin agree to an immediate resignation from politics.

The silencing of Littorin was a great victory for his political opponents, and was only possible due to the ingenious lopsided nature of the law, which makes buying sex illegal, while selling sex remains legal. The prostitute could denounce Littorin freely without any fear of being herself prosecuted, while Littorin would have to defend himself in a court of law.

Controversial politicians and social commentators, such as Sven Otto Littorin and Oscar Wilde, are often quite unconventional people with a tendency to live unconventional lives, and the architects of the "Oscar Wilde Law" must have known this perfectly well. Since they also knew that the "Sex Purchase Law" in Sweden had failed to have the desired effect of reducing prostitution, but that it had been a convenient tool for blackmail and coercion, the impression one is left with is that its true purpose is to silence and control inconvenient people.

The law was pushed through parliament on the false promise that it would reduce prostitution, and the only sure thing to have come from it is that being an unconventional person with political views contrary to that of the establishment has become, as it has been in Sweden for many years, a dangerous position. Prostitutes can at any time be called upon to denounce the social commentator and have him tried and punished for his moral sins, effectively silencing voices critical of the establishment.

Oscar Wilde would no doubt have been an early victim of this law if he had lived in Norway today. And with Oscar Wilde's sincerity and strong belief that his relationship with prostitutes was of no business of the public, he would no doubt have received the maximum sentence, just as he did in England in 1895.