contract law and coercion

I was just wondering but should implicit contracts be given the same weight as explicit contracts? As long as the two parties shake on it, is there a problem?

Second, is it acceptable if someone decides to sell sex for favors as long as the two mutually consenting parties agree to the terms? Let’s say a conversation went like this.

James is at work and he knows that Edith really wants to win this new contract so that her company (we will call it IGE technologies for sake) will be able to secure new markets for their firewall products. And James decides to tell Edith “Edith, I can get you that contract you always wanted, but will you have sex with me in exchange for me getting you that contract”? Should that be illegal?

James is not forcing Edith to have sex with him, and he is not forcing her against her will. But if she agrees to this arrangement, why should this be considered against the law as it is currently now. If two mutually consenting adults agree to something as mentioned above, what is the harm?

While it may be immoral, there was no force, theft, fraud or abuse and yet this is routinely prosecuted as sexual harassment even though nobody acted against somebody else’s consent. And yet this kind of victimless crime is translated into a multimillion dollar lawsuit which is bogus in merit and yet the evidence is scanty at best.

And yet somehow, we tolerate this kind of nonsense. So can someone tell me weather or not this behavior (sex for contracts/favors) should be legalized or banned? Thanks

Well, unless James is the CEO and sole shareholder of the company, I’d say that management and investors would be none too happy about his business practices. Surely everybody around the office isn’t aware of this, so he would be defrauding everyone else in the company by doing business in this way. So, while James might be in position to deliver the contract, it still isn’t your-- I mean his– right to trade favors for sex, unless of course this is openly made company policy. You may as well give other, hotter IT contractors a chance to compete.