This study of British authorities' attempts to regulate prostitution both at home and abroad challenges our understanding of colonial regulation.

Philip Howell is senior lecturer in the Department of Geography, Cambridge University and a Fellow of Emmanuel College, Cambridge.

1. Introduction: Britain and the historical geography of regulationism; 2. Partial legislation and privileged places: the contagious diseases acts; 3. Liverpool, localisation and the municipal regulation of prostitution in Britain; 4. A private contagious diseases act: prostitution and the proctorial system in Victorian Oxbridge; 5. Sexuality, sovereignty and space: colonial law and the making of prostitute subjects in Gibraltar and the British Mediterranean; 6. Race and the regulation of prostitution in Hong Kong and the overseas empire; 7. Conclusions: mapping the politics of regulation.