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Prostitution as a subject of study seldom attracts jurists. Yet it provides a good illustration of the difficult relationship between the law and morals in a liberal democracy. This article sets out to delineate the legal status of prostitution, with particular emphasis on the paradoxes it exemplifies: lack of interest on behalf of the law, exertion against this acti-vity and emerging regulation. Having cleared these grounds, we shall move on to the legal consequences, in broader terms, of applying such a legal frame to prostitutional activity. This will raise the issue of the concept of human dignity that such a frame implies, as well as the problem of the judicial denial of an activity.