In brief
France's National Assembly has approved a bill eliminating the idea of marital duty to have sex, clarifying that marriage does not impose an obligation for sexual relations. The law seeks to protect individuals from domestic abuse and marital rape, a move supported by feminist advocates. While this change is expected to have minimal direct effects in court, it represents a critical step in challenging outdated societal norms regarding consent within marriage.
France is to enshrine in law the end of so-called 'conjugal rights' – the notion that marriage means a duty to have sex.
A bill approved on Wednesday in the National Assembly adds a clause to the country's civil code to make clear that 'community of living' does not create an 'obligation for sexual relations'.
The proposed law also makes it impossible to use lack of sexual relations as an argument in fault-based divorce.
Though unlikely to have a major impact in the courts, supporters hope the law will help deter marital rape.
By allowing such a right or duty to persist, we are collectively giving our approval to a system of domination and predation by husband on wife, said the bill's sponsor, Green MP Marie-Charlotte Garin.
Marriage cannot be a bubble in which consent to sex is regarded as definitive and for life.
The law will erase an ambiguity that has persisted despite there being no explicit mention of 'conjugal duty' in any legal text.
Currently, the French civil code defines the duties of marriage as 'respect, fidelity, support and assistance,' and it says that couples commit themselves to a 'community of living'.
Nowhere in the texts is there any mention of 'conjugal' - ie sexual - rights. The origins of that notion lie in medieval church law.
In a famous case in 2019 a woman was found to have withheld sex from her husband for several years, and he was then granted a 'fault-based' divorce implying guilt on her part.
But the woman then took her case to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), which last year condemned France for allowing refusal of sex to be grounds for a fault-based divorce.
This was hailed as an important advance by feminist campaigners.
For campaigners, the notion that wives have a 'duty' to agree to sex with their husbands is one that persists in parts of society and needs to be confronted.
