Law of November 6, 2025 Amending the Criminal Definition of Rape and Sexual Assault

France has enacted a landmark reform to its Penal Code, explicitly embedding the concept of non-consent into the criminal definitions of rape and sexual assault. Previously, French law focused on the use of violence, coercion, threat, or surprise as the defining elements of these offenses, without a direct reference to consent. This reform closes that gap by making the absence of free and informed consent a central legal criterion. The law defines valid consent as meeting four cumulative conditions: it must be freely given (without pressure or coercion), informed (based on full awareness of the situation), specific (applicable to the precise act in question), prior (given before the act), and revocable (capable of being withdrawn at any time). Any sexual act performed in the absence of such consent constitutes a criminal offense under the new framework. This legislative shift is explicitly framed as a cultural transformation — moving from a 'rape culture' to a 'consent culture.' It aligns France with a growing number of European countries, including Germany and Sweden, that have adopted affirmative or negative-consent standards in their sexual offense laws, following the Istanbul Convention's recommendations. The reform is expected to have significant implications for prosecutions and judicial interpretations, potentially lowering evidentiary burdens in cases where physical violence is absent but consent was clearly not given.

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