MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

French legislation will replace concept of ‘conjugal duty’ with ‘sexual autonomy’

The European Court of Human Rights ruled last year that France had failed to adequately protect sexual autonomy within marriage

The French Senate is ready to discuss and approve legislation aimed at removing any legal basis for the idea that marriage creates an obligation to ‘conjugal duty’ and engage in sexual relations.

The bill was passed on Wednesday by the National Assembly and amends the civil code to state explicitly that a couple’s “community of living,” cohabitation, does not amount to an obligation to have sex. It also bars the absence of sexual relations from being cited as grounds for fault-based divorce.

The French civil code currently defines the duties of marriage as respect, fidelity, support, and assistance, and requires spouses to commit to a “community of living”. While the text does not refer to sexual relations, judges have at times interpreted the phrase broadly.

That interpretation came under scrutiny following a 2019 divorce case in which a woman was found to be at fault for refusing sex with her husband for several years, a ruling that allowed him to obtain a fault-based divorce.

The woman later appealed to the European Court of Human Rights, which ruled last year that allowing refusal of sex to justify fault-based divorce violated her rights. The court said France had failed to adequately protect sexual autonomy within marriage, a judgment that has since influenced how French courts approach similar cases.

Lawmakers backing the new bill say it aligns domestic law with that ruling and removes any remaining room for misinterpretation. “Marriage cannot be a space where consent to sex is presumed to be permanent,” said Green MP Marie-Charlotte Garin, who sponsored the legislation.

The law will erase an ambiguity that has persisted despite there being no explicit mention of “conjugal duty” in any legal text.

France has also recently strengthened its sexual offences framework. Since November, the legal definition of rape has been expanded to focus explicitly on consent, defining it as any sexual act carried out without consent that is informed, specific, prior and revocable. Silence or lack of resistance does not constitute consent under the law.