Prostitution Law Reform in Germany The Oldest Profession: At Last to be Treated as a Profession?

Prostitution is often referred to as one of the oldest professions and yet in most jurisdictions it has been treated far from a normal profession. The question of how to appropriately deal with prostitution surfaces in most countries and time periods and the legal responses differ greatly from regulation to varying degrees of criminalisation. In Germany there has been much recent debate on the need for reform of the laws on prostitution and whether prostitution should be treated in the same way as any other occupation.2 The result of such discussion was the passing in 2001 of the Act for the Regulation of the Legal Situation of Prostitutes (Gesetz zur Regelung der Rechtsverhaltnisse der Prostituierten), which came into effect in January 2002. In view of the ongoing debate about prostitution law reform in Western Australia this article aims to analyse the changes made to this area of law in Germany, detailing the law regarding prostitution as it stood in Germany and exploring why there was a need for reform. Against this background there will an examination and evaluation of the changes made to the legal regulation of prostitution.