Sexual Assault Law Reform in a Comparative Perspective

Sexual assault law has been undergoing significant shifts around the world. Traditional criminal laws against sexual assault had a narrow scope: they targeted rape as coerced sexual intercourse, and they defined coercion as physical violence or threats with physical violence. Modern offense descriptions are tracing a change in the logic and structure of criminal laws against sexual assault from the offenders' violence to the victims' lack of consent as the key feature of criminal wrongdoing. However, there are clear and marked differences regarding the offence descriptions in substantive criminal laws in various jurisdictions.

Sexual Assault: Law Reform in a Comparative Perspective provides an overview of the debates surrounding the concept and definition of sexual consent, comparing the context and content of law reform in six countries: Canada, England and Wales, Germany, Sweden, the U.S. (concentrating on the American Law Institute's Model Penal Code), and Spain. Leading scholars in the field also analyse the normative questions that arise once the notion of consent gains centre stage. The overall purpose is to assess whether the new generation of criminal prohibitions reflect coherent and convincing concepts of sexual autonomy and consent, and what could be considered the best models for future law reform.

Tatjana Hörnle, Director, Max Planck Institute for the Study of Crime, Security and Law

Tatjana Hörnle is Director at the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Crime, Security and Law in Freiburg and Professor of Criminal Law at the Humboldt-University, Berlin. From July 2009 to September 2019, she held the Chair of Criminal Law, Criminal Procedure, Legal Philosophy, and Comparative Law at the Humboldt-University, Berlin. She is a member of the Leopoldina (National Academy of Sciences), the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities, the Mainz Academy of Sciences and Literature, and the Academia Europaea.

Normative Foundations
1. The Normative Force Of Consent In Moral, Political, And Legal Perspective, Michelle Madden Dempsey
2. Sex And Sensibility: The Meaning Of Sexual Consent, Vera Bergelson
3. What Does 'Consent' Mean?, Stephen J. Schulhofer
4. Presuming Nonconsent To Sex In Cases Of Incapacity And Abuse Of Position, Stuart P. Green
Criminal Law Reform In Practice
5. Sexual Assault Law In Canada, Malcolm Thorburn
6. The Sexual Offences Act 2003: England And Wales, Jonathan Herring
7. The New German Law On Sexual Assault, Tatjana Hörnle
8. The Swedish Move Towards (In)Voluntariness, Claes Lernestedt And Marie Kagrell
9. Article 213 Of The American Law Institute's Model Penal Code, Erin Murphy
10. Sexual Assaults Under Spanish Law: Law Reform, Consent, And Political Identity, Manuel Cancio Meliá
Thoughts For Future Law Reform
11. A Comparison Of Sexual Assault Laws And Some Advice For Law Reform, Tatjana Hörnle