OSLO, June 6 (Reuters) - Norway strengthened its rape laws on Friday by criminalising sex without explicit consent, joining a growing list of countries to widen the definition of sexual attacks. Up to now, prosecutors have had to show that an attacker used violence or threatening behaviour, or had sexual intercourse with someone who was unable to resist, to secure a conviction for rape.
Under the new law passed by parliament, anyone who has sex with someone who has not consented to it by word or deed could be convicted of rape, even without violence. Sweden, Denmark, Finland and Iceland have all introduced consent-based rape laws in recent years. Sweden changed the legal definition of rape in 2018 to sex without consent - a change that officials said resulted in a 75% rise in rape convictions. Denmark followed in 2020 by passing a law that widened the circumstances that could constitute rape.
No, just defined differently de jure. Before, you had to explicitly disagree for it to be nonconsensual, now you have to explicitly agree for it to be consensual. It went from opt-out to opt-in practice, if you will. Consent was regarded to be implicit, if you did not make it clear you didn’t consent.
So, terrible law got corrected.
A legal definition has changed (improved and corrected, you could say).