by Claude Opus 5.5
Does consent given at the start of an evening still count hours later? Can it be withdrawn at any point?
Imagine two people who, early in an evening, flirt and agree that they will probably end up back at one of their rooms. Hours later, after a party and several drinks, that is where they are. Does the agreement from earlier in the evening mean that whatever happens now is consented to? Most people sense that it does not, but explaining why is useful, because it shows something important about how consent works over time.
Consent is about now
The most important point is that consent is not a ticket bought in advance. It is a present choice about what is happening, or about to happen. The law in England and Wales reflects this: the question is whether the person consented at the time of the act, and whether the other person reasonably believed that at the time. An earlier conversation can be part of the evidence about what someone wanted, but it does not replace the need for consent when the time comes.
There are good reasons for this. People change their minds, and they are entitled to. Situations change: someone may feel differently when they are actually in the room, or with a particular person, or in a particular state. An agreement made earlier may have been made without knowing what the later situation would be like.
What can change during an evening
Several things can happen between an early agreement and a later moment that make the earlier agreement unreliable.
A person may simply change their mind. Nothing needs to have gone wrong; they just no longer want to.
A person may lose capacity. If someone becomes very drunk or drugged, they may no longer be able to understand or decide. Even if they agreed earlier, they cannot confirm or withdraw that agreement now. Treating their earlier words as still binding would mean treating them as unable to change their mind at exactly the moment they most need to be able to.
The situation may change. Agreeing to be alone with one person is not agreeing to be with others. Agreeing to one kind of activity is not agreeing to another.
The person may learn something new, about the other person, about the setting, or about what is expected, that changes how they feel.
Withdrawal
Can consent be withdrawn at any point? Yes. This is one of the clearest principles in both law and ethics. A person can stop sexual activity at any time, including after it has started, and the other person must stop. Continuing after consent has been withdrawn is not consensual, however clearly consent was given before.
Withdrawal does not have to be dramatic. It might be saying “stop” or “I don’t want to”, but it might also be pulling away, going quiet, or freezing. Because people do not always say no clearly, especially when frightened or intoxicated, paying attention to changes in someone’s behaviour matters.
Some people find this unfair. They ask: if someone said yes, how am I supposed to know when that changes? The answer is that this is exactly what paying attention to another person involves. Sex is something two people do together, not something one person does once the other has signed up.
The special problem of intoxication
Intoxication creates a particular difficulty. Someone who agreed while sober and then becomes very drunk cannot give fresh consent, and may not be able to withdraw clearly either. Some people argue that in this case, the earlier consent should still count, because the person cannot now express a different view.
This gets things the wrong way round. The ability to withdraw is part of what makes consent meaningful. If a person can no longer withdraw because they lack capacity, they are no longer in a position to keep consenting either. The safer and fairer approach is that when someone has lost capacity, earlier agreement does not authorise what happens next.
In the case behind these seminars
The Cornell case involves allegations about events during a single night, with disputes about drug use and about what was voluntary. Nothing here assumes what happened. But the principle that consent must be present at the time, and can be withdrawn, is one reason why any earlier agreement or earlier voluntary act, even if established, would not settle the question of consent to what happened later.
Questions for discussion
Is there any situation where you think earlier agreement should still count, even if someone cannot confirm it later? What about couples in long-term relationships? Does knowing someone well change what counts as consent, or only how easy it is to tell? And if you were unsure whether someone still wanted to continue, what would be the simplest way to find out?