Marital Rape in UK Law

Adultery is both a ground for divorce and a criminal offence punishable by imprisonment of two months to one year. A woman found guilty of adultery is punished along with her partner. For a husband's adultery to be punished however he must have committed the act in the matrimonial home or have had an ongoing sexual relationship with a woman other than his wife outside the marital home. The man's partner is not punished.

In secular matters most cases were adjudicated upon in informal hearings often convened by the village chief but that in any event, family and community members might also apply disciplinary procedures even trying and torturing individuals for serious violations of norms, such as adultery.

Ms Monekosso is a journalist who uses investigative techniques in order to seek information. When asked if she had published any recent papers since she left university, Ms Monekosso explained that her techniques were simply investigative, describing herself as an investigator. There is something of the campaigner in her, seeking to advance the cause of women in Africa for which she must be applauded but in our view this has led to the loss, in part, of a rigorously objective approach.

The appellant also claimed that she would be persecuted by her Dioula tribe on the basis of her adultery. Ms Monekosso wrote at paragraph 11 of her second report that she had ‘ no personal knowledge of the rituals or punishments observed by the Muslim community in Odienne’.

The committee has reached the conclusion that the wider construction should prevail. In short, the conduct test should be applied consistently throughout the 2003 Act, the conduct relevant under Part 2 of the Act being that described in the documents constituting the request (the equivalent of the arrest warrant under Part 1), ignoring in both cases mere narrative background but taking account of such allegations as are relevant to the description of the corresponding United Kingdom offence.

In two issues of the Sunday Times newspaper on 17th and 24th September 1989 there appeared articles concerning share deals involving the superannuation fund of the Derbyshire County Council. The Council is the "administering authority" of its superannuation fund under the Superannuation Act 1972 and the regulations made thereunder.