1.  This chapter will focus on the English law of rape, its relationship with other sexual offences and the options for reform within the present framework of the law.

2.  English law differentiates sharply between them.

3.  Even if a wife were expressly to agree to sexual intercourse on demand, such a promise would not in English law be contractually binding upon her.

4.  It has been indicated above that Scottish law developed slightly differently from English law.

5.  English law, for example, provides an offence of rape and attempted rape on the one hand with maximum penalties of life imprisonment, and indecent assault on the other, with a maximum penalty which has recently been raised from two to ten years" imprisonment.

6.  Under the present English law of rape, a judge has complete discretion as to sentencing and may take into account a variety of factors.

7.  The argument was rejected, in part, because the provisions of the Geneva Convention had not been fully incorporated into English law, despite being ratified.

8.  For the judge suggested that the legal effect of the Genocide Act and that of the Geneva Conventions Act were indistinguishable for all relevant purposes, since neither fully incorporated the respective Convention into English law but merely created new criminal offences to give effect to that convention.

9.  While this is true as regards the specific wording of the offence of genocide, it was pointed out in the parliamentary debate relating to the Genocide Bill that almost all the offences included in the Convention were in fact already offences under English law.

10.  English law will permit quite severe injuries to be inflicted in the course of sport - a fractured skull in a playground incident was sanctioned on this basis.