Towards an evolution of French law? The new Minister of Justice Didier Migaud declared this Friday, September 27 on France Inter that he was in favor of the idea of changing the definition of rape in French law by integrating the notion of consent. Asked whether he was in favor, like President Emmanuel Macron, of including consent in French law, Didier Migaud replied: “Yes”.
The debate on the redefinition of rape in the penal code to take into account the absence of consent resurfaced in France during the Mazan rape trial. Currently, article 222-23 of the penal code defines rape as “any act of sexual penetration, of whatever nature, or any oral-genital act committed on the person of another or on the person of the perpetrator by violence, coercion, threat or surprise”. The notion of consent, which resurfaced in the 2010s with the #MeToo shockwave, is not explicitly mentioned.
In Spain, “only a yes is a yes”
Last March, Emmanuel Macron said he was in favor of changing the definition of rape. The Head of State subsequently hoped that a proposed text could see the light of day “by the end of the year”, a prospect that had become uncertain with the surprise announcement of the dissolution of the National Assembly. at the beginning of June which put an end to the work in progress on this subject.
Several European countries have changed their definition of rape in recent years as sexual assault without explicit consent. In Sweden, a sexual consent law, which considers any sexual act without explicit agreement to be rape, even in the absence of threat or violence, has been in force since 2018. In Spain, a law – nicknamed “Only a yes is a yes” – has introduced since October 2022 the obligation of explicit sexual consent. Same development in Greece and Denmark.