ABSTRACT
Consent is a power to change the normative relations between the consent-giver and others. By giving consent, a person releases others from certain obligations they used to have with respect to that person and gives them the privilege, power or immunity to do what they could not legitimately do before. In some cases, consent operates to prevent the commission of a crime: it ‘turns a rape into love-making, a kidnapping into a Sunday drive, a battery into a football tackle, a theft into a gift, and a trespass into a dinner party’. 1 And yet there are many examples of conduct that remains wrongful despite its consensual nature. Homicide, riot, bribery, and bigamy are among those.
