France to Abolish “Marital Duty”: Ending Legal Penalties for Lack of Sex in Divorce

Jan. 29, 2026 /Mpelembe Media/ — France is moving to eliminate long-standing legal requirements that mandated sexual intimacy as a formal obligation within marriage. According to this report, the French government will no longer recognize the denial of physical relations as a legitimate justification for a fault-based divorce. This significant legislative shift effectively scraps the “marital duty” concept that previously penalized spouses for withholding consent. By removing these antiquated provisions, the state aims to modernize domestic laws and prioritize personal autonomy over traditional marital expectations. This policy update represents a major change in how the justice system evaluates marital misconduct and separation proceedings.

The removal of the “marital duty” concept fundamentally changes French divorce law by eliminating the legal penalty for spouses who refuse sex. This shift represents a significant move away from traditional obligations within a marriage contract, specifically affecting how fault-based divorce is adjudicated.

Key changes to French legal concepts include:

Invalidation of “Marital Duty” as Fault: The concept of “marital duty”—the legal expectation of sexual intimacy between spouses—will no longer be valid grounds for a fault-based divorce.

Decoupling Sex from Legal Fault: Under the new rules, a lack of sex in a marriage will no longer be considered “reasonable grounds” for divorce.

End of Penalization: Spouses will no longer face legal repercussions or be penalized by the court system for exercising their right to refuse sexual activity.

These changes suggest a modernization of French law that prioritizes individual autonomy over historical marital obligations that were previously enforceable in court.

The removal of the “marital duty” concept fundamentally transforms French divorce law by decoupling sexual intimacy from legal liability. This shift represents a significant move away from traditional marital obligations that were previously enforceable in court.

The conceptual changes include:

Invalidation of Fault-Based Grounds: The “marital duty”—the legal expectation that spouses must engage in sexual relations—will no longer be considered valid grounds for a fault-based divorce. In the past, failing to meet this “duty” could be used to prove one spouse was legally responsible for the breakdown of the marriage.

Removal of Penalties for Refusal: The law will no longer penalise spouses for refusing sex. This change ensures that sexual autonomy is protected within the legal framework of marriage, as individuals will no longer face legal repercussions or unfavorable divorce rulings for exercising their right to refuse sexual activity.

Redefinition of “Reasonable Grounds”: Under the new rules, a lack of sex in a marriage is explicitly rejected as a “reasonable grounds” for divorce. This means that the absence of a sexual relationship, on its own, cannot be used to justify a legal separation under the fault-based system.

These changes, set to be announced by France, effectively end the era where sexual intimacy was treated as a legally mandated service within a marriage contract, prioritizing individual choice over historical marital “duties”,.

Historically, fault-based divorce grounds in France placed significant weight on the concept of “marital duty,” which established a legal expectation of sexual intimacy between spouses. The significance of this framework lay in its ability to legally penalize individuals within the marriage contract for refusing sexual relations.

Based on the sources, the historical significance of these grounds included:

Legal Enforcement of Intimacy: Under the fault-based system, sexual intimacy was not merely a private matter but a legally mandated obligation. Failure to fulfill this “duty” was considered a “fault” that one spouse could cite against the other during divorce proceedings.

Establishment of “Reasonable Grounds”: A lack of sex in a marriage was historically categorized as “reasonable grounds” for seeking a divorce. This allowed the court to assign blame for the breakdown of the marriage based on the absence of physical relations.

Judicial Penalization: The historical framework empowered the state to penalize spouses who exercised their right to refuse sex, treatng such refusal as a breach of their marital contract.

The upcoming changes to French law, which will scrap these provisions, signal the end of this historical era where sexual refusal could lead to unfavorable legal outcomes or formal “fault” designations in a divorce.

These legal reforms significantly impact individual marital rights by protecting sexual autonomy and removing the state’s ability to enforce intimacy within a marriage contract.

Based on the sources and our conversation, the impact on individual rights includes:

Right to Refuse Without Penalty: Individuals will no longer face legal penalties for refusing to engage in sexual activity with their spouse. Previously, as discussed in our history, the law could penalize a spouse for such a refusal, but the reform ensures this is no longer a punishable offense under the legal system.

Protection from Fault Designations: A spouse’s individual right to bodily autonomy is strengthened because the “lack of sex” can no longer be used as “reasonable grounds” for divorce. This means an individual cannot be legally branded as the “at-fault” party in a marriage’s breakdown solely based on their sexual choices.

Removal of Legal Coercion: By scrapping the concept of “marital duty” as a valid ground for a fault-based divorce, the law removes the legal pressure to perform sexually to avoid unfavorable court rulings.

In essence, these reforms shift the legal focus from a mandatory “duty” of intimacy to the protection of individual consent, ensuring that sexual relations remain a private matter of personal choice rather than a legally enforceable obligation,.

The removal of the “marital duty” concept fundamentally shifts the legal understanding of consent within a marriage from a pre-negotiated obligation to a continuous personal choice.

According to the sources and our conversation history, the impact on the legal definition of consent includes:

Affirmation of the Right to Refuse: By scrapping laws that penalize spouses for refusing sex, the legal system now explicitly recognizes that consent can be withheld at any time. Previously, the “marital duty” created a legal expectation that implied a form of permanent consent or “debt” that had to be paid; the new law ensures that refusal is no longer a punishable offense.

Separation of Marriage from Coerced Intimacy: The legal definition of a valid marriage no longer includes a mandatory sexual component that can be used as “reasonable grounds” for a fault-based divorce. This change clarifies that a marriage contract does not grant an automatic or permanent right to a spouse’s body, reinforcing the idea that consent must be granted for each individual encounter rather than being granted once at the time of the wedding.

Protection of Bodily Autonomy: These reforms move the legal focus away from “fault” and toward individual autonomy. By stating that a lack of sex is no longer a legal failure, the law reinforces that a spouse’s decision regarding intimacy is a private right rather than a breach of contract.

Information from outside the sources: While the provided sources focus on civil law and divorce proceedings, it is important to note that the broader “legal definition of consent” often spans into criminal law. The sources do not explicitly state if these changes to French divorce law will automatically change the definitions used in criminal statutes regarding sexual assault or rape; however, legal experts often argue that removing “marital duty” from civil codes helps align civil law with modern criminal standards that emphasize enthusiastic and revocable consent. You may want to independently verify how these civil changes interact with France’s criminal code regarding sexual offenses.