How to say this? It's about drinking and sex. And consent. And whether a woman who gets drunk should even be allowed to consent to have sex. And whether an equally drunk guy can tell the difference. And, well, you know...
Britain's Solicitor General Mike O'Brien wants to introduce laws that make it easier to get rape convictions against men who deliberately get women tipsy in order to have it off with them.
According to a story in the Daily Mail:
"Under the new plans, the legal definition of consent could be rewritten to make clear that women who are drunk could not have agreed to sex.
"It raises the possibility that even if a woman agreed to sex while drunk, a jury could decide she was too inebriated to give meaningful consent.
"This places a heavy burden of responsibility on men to ensure that a woman is fully conscious of her actions and has agreed to make love."
You know how bartenders or even friends can sometimes take a guy's keys if he's loaded and unsafe to drive? Maybe they'll have to start putting drunk women in cabs for the guy's own good too.
Actually there already is a law re. this situation in Canada. I can't remember the name of it right now, but there was a famous constitutional case about this exact thing. I can't remember if they wrote it in the Criminal Code or not...but alcohol is a factor in consent here too.
ReplyDeleteI think what's different here is that scourge of all criminal law, the reverse onus. Hell, they're getting near to an absolute liability situation. God they'd have to arrest half the kids in our university dorms. The other half, of course, would be the women getting through their hangovers.
ReplyDeleteInteresting approach. I might support it if the definition of rape is extended to include what some of these politicians are doing to Canadian taxpayers.
ReplyDeletethis law would only be applied in extreme situations and we have for many many years had the same burden of Yes on sexual consent without cause for concern. A woman must say yes. Saying nothing is not yes, being too inebraited to say yes is not yes. Its a good law.
ReplyDeletePerhaps were are getting to the point where a man has to get a woman to sign some form of consent before sex? ( the jokes running on the internet are coming true)
ReplyDelete