Joseph MassoProf. FeeleyPOSC 115A06 May 2014First Draft of the Affirmative Consent StandardSummaryThe ambiguity contained in the decisions in rape cases has become too great to be perpetuated without a formal solution being put in place. The affirmative consent standard aims to neutralize this lack of clarity regarding consent between two parties having sex by requiring both parties to request and receive a verbal yes before engaging in a relationship. Sexual consent should never be presumed and any inconsistencies in state or federal law can be corrected using this principle. Problem Statement: Over the past thirty years, courts have expanded the legal parameters of rape to include withdrawal of consent. after penetration. Courts and state legislatures across the country should seek to modernize rape laws to protect all victims of nonconsensual sex, regardless of when those victims demonstrate their lack of consent. Under English common law, a conviction for rape required proof that the perpetrator used force or threats of force against the victim. There are many contradictions between states regarding consent. In an effort to eliminate moral ambiguity or the question of consent, an affirmative consent standard should be put in place that refines the classification of consent from "not saying no to sex" to saying yes to sex with words or expressions. obvious enthusiastic actions. in the United States is defined as "an act of sexual intercourse performed against the will of a person by means of force, violence, duress, threat or fear of immediate and unlawful bodily harm on the person or other person.” Courts have expanded this definition to include withdrawal of consent after penetration...... middle of paper ......r an affirmative consent standard, the law presumes that a woman only grants consent if asked. It will be up to the man to demonstrate this consent if the woman, in her complaint, alleges that such consent was not given; It is therefore his account of the events of the evening which will be examined by the court, rather than that of the woman. Affirmative consent therefore represents a shift in the way society, and particularly the courts, view the process of consent to sexual intercourse. Affirmative consent recommends that sexual relations be considered an act that both parties must voluntarily engage in and that both parties' opinions are equally valid in the eyes of the legal system. Affirmative consent marks a pattern of sexual interaction in which both participants take responsibility for their desires and actions..