Similar measures are being proposed in Scotland. In 2021, the senior Scottish law officer, Lord Advocate Dorothy Bain, suggested that politicians were ‘morally obliged’ to consider judge-led trials in rape cases, in order to deal with a backlog from the Covid pandemic. This followed proposals by a senior Scottish lawyer earlier that year, who argued that more rape cases should be heard by a single judge with no jury. This, Lady Dorrian argued, would ‘fundamentally change and improve the way sexual offences are prosecuted in Scotland’.

Proposals are also being made in England and Wales to further complicate already complex rape laws. The Right to Equality campaign group, led by barrister Charlotte Proudman and in partnership with the Good Law Project, has proposed that rape be ‘redefined’ to criminalise ‘unwanted sex’. The group argues that rape should be defined as a ‘crime of inequality’, in which ‘force incorporates multiple inequalities of power – such as age, race, disability, celebrity, caste, sexual orientation, gender identity and sex / gender’.

Beneath the academic gibberish is a terrifying proposal. It would place unprecedented power in the hands of judges to regulate intimacy. It would make interracial and other diverse relationships more open to legal intervention.

Looks like this will become the norm across Europe within a few years.