Under British law, one cannot be considered to have given consent to Actual Bodily Harm (which is loosely defined, but generally consists of 'heavy bruising', 'marks which persist for a week or more' or similar levels of injury) or Grevious Bodily Harm (or 'wounding', but that's oddly defined and generally strange legally) on the grounds of sadomasochism; you can give consent to 'battery', which is any form of physical contact which does not constitute ABH. There is a famous case where a bunch of gay men were convicted of ABH and GBH for consensual acts performed on each other. ('Assault' doesn't actually contain any element of physical contact at all - it's the crime of putting someone in *fear* of violence, and you can also consent to that trivially.)
I think the American legal system has different definitions of all of these terms, and don't know its stance on how much harm can be explained as sadomasochism.
no subject
Date: 2005-01-07 04:50 pm (UTC)I think the American legal system has different definitions of all of these terms, and don't know its stance on how much harm can be explained as sadomasochism.