In a historic and unanimous move, the French National Assembly has voted 503 to 0 to fundamentally rewrite the country’s legal definition of incest. The sweeping new bill officially extends the definition of incest to first cousins, closing a centuries-old loophole that dates back to the Napoleonic era.
Until this legislative shift, French law did not criminally recognize sexual relations between consenting adult first cousins as incest, meaning it was entirely legal for first cousins to cohabit, marry, and have children.

The Historical Loophole

For over two centuries, France’s Penal Code relied on boundaries established in 1804 under Napoleon Bonaparte. While the code strictly prohibited marriage and sexual relationships between direct ascendants and descendants (parents and children) as well as siblings, it left relationships between first cousins completely outside the scope of criminal incest.
Under the old framework, if a sexual assault occurred between cousins, the familial relationship could not be used by prosecutors as an “aggravating circumstance” to secure harsher penalties. The new bill corrects this, establishing incest as a distinct, independent criminal offense with its own dedicated section in the French penal code.

How the Law Bypasses “Consent” for Minors

The updated legislation specifically pulls first-cousin relationships into France’s stringent framework governing minors and familial abuse. Under Articles 222-23-2 and 222-29-3 of the French Penal Code, France maintains autonomous infractions for incestuous rape and sexual assault.
By adding first cousins to these provisions, the law triggers two critical mechanisms that legally strip away the defense of a minor’s “consent”:
• The Absolute Threshold: A minor under the age of 18 cannot legally consent to any sexual act with an adult family member who holds legal or de facto authority over them.
• Bypassing the Burden of Proof: Prosecutors are entirely dispensed from the burden of proving that physical violence, explicit threats, or surprise were used to override the victim’s will. Under Article 222-22-1, the law presumes that the family dynamic, the age gap, and the psychological hold (l’emprise) inherent in familial structures automatically invalidate consent.
By integrating first cousins into this statutory matrix, adult cousins can no longer claim that a minor relative “consented” to a sexual relationship.

Next Steps for the Legislation

While the National Assembly’s 503–0 vote marks a massive political consensus, the bill is not yet law. It now moves to the French Senate for review. If approved by the Senate, it will officially end France’s long-standing legal tolerance of first-cousin intimate relationships, reshaping the nation’s family and criminal law for generations to come.