In the wake of the sensational Gisèle Pelicot gang-rape trial, the French Senate unanimously approved a bill, previously approved by the National Assembly, to redefine rape as any sexual act without consent, defined as “freely given, informed, specific, prior, and revocable.” This makes rape easier to prove than the previous standard, which required an expression of non-consent or victim incapacity to consent, although that previous standard was quite adequate to convict Pelicot’s abusers. Canada has had an affirmative consent standard for nearly twenty years, but police have in practice found it unrealistic and difficult to implement, given that love-making seldom follows an explicitly negotiated verbal script. Some worry (and others celebrate) that spontaneous passion and the ambiguous Gallic concept of ravissement will become anachronisms in France.
France Redefines Rape
