Marriage and Advance Consent to Sex: A Feminist Judgment in <em>R v JA</em>

• Main Author: Jennifer Koshan
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oñati International Institute for the Sociology of Law 2016-12-01
• Series: Oñati Socio-Legal Series
• Subjects: Sexual assault; marital rape; consent; feminist judgments Asalto sexual; violación matrimonial; consentimiento; sentencias feministas
• Online Access: http://opo.iisj.net/index.php/osls/article/view/737

<p>This paper is a feminist judgment in R v JA (Supreme Court of Canada 2011), a spousal sexual assault case involving the issue of whether parties can consent in advance to sexual activity that will occur while they are asleep or unconscious. The Supreme Court&rsquo;s ruling in JA has generated critique and debate amongst feminist and law and sexuality scholars that pits women's equality and security interests against their affirmative sexual autonomy. Using the methodology of a feminist judgment, I endeavour to analyze whether it is possible to adopt an approach to advance consent that protects or at least balances all of these interests. My particular focus is the spousal context, where courts have often interpreted the sexual assault provisions of the Criminal Code to the detriment of women&rsquo;s sexual integrity and equality, yet where arguments about affirmative sexual autonomy have also predominated. Taking a harm-based approach to criminality that considers both negative and positive sexual autonomy, the judgment concludes that advance consent should not be considered valid without certain legal safeguards being put into place.</p><hr /><p>Este art&iacute;culo es una sentencia feminista de R v JA (Tribunal Supremo de Canad&aacute; 2011), un caso de agresi&oacute;n sexual conyugal que implica la cuesti&oacute;n de si las partes pueden consentir de antemano una actividad sexual que ocurrir&aacute; mientras est&aacute;n dormidos o inconscientes. El fallo de la Corte Suprema en JA ha generado cr&iacute;ticas y debates entre feministas e investigadores en derecho y sexualidad, que enfrentan los intereses de igualdad y seguridad de la mujer con su autonom&iacute;a sexual afirmativa. Utilizando la metodolog&iacute;a de un juicio feminista, se intenta analizar si es posible adoptar un enfoque de consentimiento anticipado que proteja, o al menos equilibre, todos estos intereses. El enfoque particular es el contexto conyugal, donde los tribunales han interpretado a menudo las disposiciones sobre el asalto sexual del C&oacute;digo Penal en detrimento de la integridad sexual y la igualdad de las mujeres, incluso tambi&eacute;n donde tambi&eacute;n han predominado los argumentos sobre la autonom&iacute;a sexual positiva. A partir de un acercamiento a la criminalidad basado en el da&ntilde;o, que considera la autonom&iacute;a sexual negativa y positiva, la sentencia concluye que el consentimiento previo no debe ser considerado v&aacute;lido sin que se pongan en pr&aacute;ctica ciertas garant&iacute;as legales.</p> <p><strong>DOWNLOAD THIS PAPER FROM SSRN</strong>: <a href="https://ssrn.com/abstract=2891024" target="_blank">https://ssrn.com/abstract=2891024</a></p>