[lbo-talk] Penile Invasions (was: Dull)

andie nachgeborenen andie_nachgeborenen at yahoo.com
Thu Aug 7 15:43:11 PDT 2003



>
> A very cursory Web check on the subject of the
> "marital rape exemption"
> seems to indicate that all states of the U.S. by now
> have repealed such
> exemptions, but the precise legal situation is a
> little murky to this
> non-lawyer. Perhaps a lawyer on the list could
> clarify.

Far as I know this is true.

This non-lawyer
> also finds it extremely difficult to believe that
> legal definitions of
> marriage these days include a duty for the wife to
> perform intercourse
> whenever the husband demands it, but unlike Dworkin,
> I haven't studied
> marriage law.

Well refusal _ever_ to have sexual intercourse is probably grounds for divorce in every state. But I don't think any jurisdiction or the common law ever created a legal duty to give in to the husband's demands whenever. Such a duty would of course be unenforceable. What would you do, sue? But perhaps you mean the obverse, that the wife had no legal rights against nonconsensual sex with her husband, i.e., that legally he couldn't rape her. And in many if not all jurisdictions that was true until recentlt.

I am not not an expert on family law, though.

jks

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