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Full-Text Articles in Law
Clear As Mud: Constitutional Concerns With Clear Affirmative Consent, C. Ashley Saferight
Clear As Mud: Constitutional Concerns With Clear Affirmative Consent, C. Ashley Saferight
Cleveland State Law Review
Rape and sexual assault laws and policies have shifted significantly in recent years, including the introduction of affirmative consent. Unfortunately, both proponents and critics tend to confuse the issues and falsely equate affirmative consent as a substantive social standard versus a procedural standard for adjudication and punishment. Although affirmative consent generally does not represent a significant change in consent law in the United States, statutes and policies requiring a further requirement that affirmative consent be clear and unambiguous (“clear affirmative consent”) are problematic and raise constitutional concerns. When clear affirmative consent policies are used as an adjudicative standard, they increase …
Unpacking Affirmative Consent: Not As Great As You Hope, Not As Bad As You Fear, Jonathan Witmer-Rich
Unpacking Affirmative Consent: Not As Great As You Hope, Not As Bad As You Fear, Jonathan Witmer-Rich
Law Faculty Articles and Essays
This Article aims to “unpack” the concept of affirmative consent by identifying common assertions about affirmative consent that are false or misleading and by separating issues that are commonly conflated. The goal here is not to advocate either for or against the notion of affirmative consent but to clarify the concept to show what is at stake (and what is not at stake) in these debates.
Part II of this Article sets forth definitions of affirmative consent, particularly noting the difference between policies that require unambiguous agreements and those that do not. Part III addresses the various misconceptions identified above. …