ABSTRACT
This chapter deals with the age of sexual consent. This topic displays features which go beyond the terms of the Principles of Consensuality and Dissent. The chapter proposes general comments about the background to any debate about an age of majority and to those features of this background which make discussion of this issue very difficult. It seeks to illuminate what is at stake in fixing an age of majority. The chapter suggests several kinds of consideration which should enter into a discussion of how and where to fix the age of majority. It suggests four considerations which should enter into any determination of where the age of sexual majority should fall. They are the nature of sexual activity, the age of the consenting party, the age differential between the parties, and the existence of a special relationship between the parties. Sexual activity by someone below the age of majority is characterised as non-consensual.
