Law Commission Report: Rape within Marriage1
| Date | 01 September 1993 |
| Published date | 01 September 1993 |
| DOI | 10.1177/026975809300200405 |
International
Review
ofVictimology,
1993,
Vol.
2,
pp.
345-349
0269-75801/1993
$10
©
1993
A B
Academic
Publishers-Printed in Great Britain
LAW
COMMISSION
REPORT:
RAPE
WITHIN
MARRIAGE
1
In
October
1990,
the
Law
Commission of England
and
Wales
published
Working
Paper
116,
Rape
Within
Marriage,
in which
it
provisionally concluded that
the
marital
rape
exemption should
be
abolished.
Within
the
year,
Lord
Lane
in
R.
v.
R.
2
.had
declared that
the
husband's immunity
no
longer existed, a decision
confirmed
by
the
House
of Lords in October
1991.
3
Was
there anything left
for
the
Law
Commission
to
say
or
do?
The
Commission
seems
to
have
wondered
about
this
and
to
have
concluded that
its
task
was
not complete.
The
resulting
Report describes
the
responses
to
the
Working
Paper,
sets
out
the
reasons
for
the
Commission's independent conclusion that
the
immunity should
go,
discusses
certain ancillary issues
and
puts
the case
for
legislation.
It
might
have
been
thought that all
this
would
make
for
a fairly predictable package, but, in
fact,
the
Commission
has
produced a fascinating
and
important social document.
Responses
to
Working
Paper
116
The
chief interest of
the
Report might
be
said
to
lie in its full account of
the
different responses
to
the
Working
Paper,
which
clearly aroused considerable
interest. There
were
80
responses
from
individuals
and
organisations. Of these,
68
favoured complete abolition of
the
immunity (para 3.4).
The
roster of
those
in
this category
is
impressive: ten organisations representing legal practitioners
including
the
Law
Society,
the Criminal
and
Family
Law
Bar Associations,
the
General Council of the Bar
and
the
Crown Prosecution Service,
the
three
main
police organisations,
14
women's groups,
the
Mothers'
Union,
the National
Federation of Women's Institutes
and
eleven other organisations
as
well
as
a
sprinkling of judges
who
chose
to
respond individually (para 3.6). The Mothers'
Union had itself consulted representatives of 50 Anglican dioceses
and
received
comments
from
1,100
individuals, the vast majority of
whom
favoured abolition
(para
3.5
n.6).
Women
Against
Rape
responded with
an
open
letter endorsed
by
413
organisations
and
individuals including trade unions
and
Members of Parlia-
ment (para
3.5
n.5). Those against abolition consisted of eight individuals
and
two
organisations
not
named
in
the
Report (para
3.6).
The
National Family Trust
and
the
Council of Her Majesty's Circuit Judges were
in
favour of abolition
only
where
the
couple were not cohabiting (paras
3.
7
and
3.8),
and
Professor Glanville
Williams
proposed that marital
rape
should
be
treated
as
a summary offence (para
3.8).
The
overwhelming support
for
abolition of
the
exemption amongst a broad
1
(1992),
Law
Com.
No.
205,
referred
to
by
paragraph numbers
only.
2
[1991]
2
WLR
1065.
3
[1991]
3
WLR
767.
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