. . . to what I consider to be the ideal relevance of age. Moral relevance is too subjective a matter, in my opinion; and current law is current law, which is say that now (and when Polanski allegedly committed the crime), it would have been statutory rape even if she'd said, "Hell YEAH!"

But the law doesn't recognize consent (or the appearance of it) under certain conditions. Age is only one such condition. Mental disability is another; and physical vulnerability, combined with other evidence, could establish that "consent" was in fact coerced.

Sure. I don't quibble over the existence of those distinctions, only over the ways we measure them, and/or over the bold lines that divide acceptable activity from unacceptable activity.

But law is full of such paradoxes, because any kind of quantitative line-drawing ultimately creates them. Such lines may irritate because they seem arbitrary, but are they any worse than more descriptive qualitative lines that can easily lead into semantic swamps, like so-called "hate crime" laws?

I absolutely oppose "hate crime" laws. I'm not sure whether that means I'm agreeing or disagreeing with you. My guess is that I agree AND disagree. Those lines do irritate, and are arbitrary . . . and, sadly (perhaps), necessary.

The victim's age in Polanski's case doesn't "cloud" the issue, in any legal sense.

I agree. I meant more that it clouds the issue here on the Fray, or in conversation about the matter. That is to say, I think that one can have reasonable question in this forum as to the efficacy of age-of-consent laws as they stand while still essentially believing that, if Polanski is truly guilty of what he appears to be guilty of, he is a rapist.

But there you are, if you want to have a law at all.

Law is a necessary evil; we require some level of protection from one another as we go about squeezing life 'til something resembling meaning drips out of it (or until it dies from asphyxiation). That doesn't mean that I won't find myself regularly (frequently?) negotiating the terms of that evil (even those terms that in no way apply to me).