Nudity and law

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Overview

Law and case law are country-specific

Traditions, historical events such as foreign domination or liberation struggles, intellectual and religious developments and much more form locally different bases for the development of law in individual countries. Therefore, the legal situations in different countries, even if they are neighboring, often differ considerably.

The consideration of the legal classification of nudity must therefore be country-specific.

Nude life at ease in several countries

For some of the considered countries like Germany and Austria, we distinguish between
- Penal law,
- Regulatory law, and
- Property Law.

Summary:

Looking at penal law shows, that nudity is not a criminal offence: In penal law, all offences, which may concern nudity, apply only to sexual deeds in public.
Terms such as "public disturbance" or "exhibitionism", which uninformed fellow citizens willingly cite, solely concern sexual deeds and have absolutely nothing to do with nudity in terms of naturist activities. Unfortunately, these uninformed citizens often cause with their unjustified calls, that police and regulatory authorities are distracted from their real duties.
Even in regulatory law, nudity is defined as a regulatory offence only here and there (e.g. in some German local governance law or in Swiss cantonal law (Appenzell) – we take these isolated cases seriously and avoid any violation of such regulations. In general, we advise you to avoid nudity within built-up areas, unless there is a corresponding permit or invitation.
In some of the considered countries, property law governs, that an owner of a property may freely decide on the usage of the property: Whether the guests must be dressed or are allowed to be in the nude or must be nude, is solely her / his free choice.

Complex law situation regarding nude life

In other countries like the United states of America (USA), the law situation regarding nudity is complex. In many situations, being in the nude may cause serious legal trouble up to imprisonment.

Choose the country of your interest

Because law is country-specific, choose the country of your interest and click onto the regarding entry in the menu.

For a first overview information about the legal situation or naturist practice in many countries of the world, you can also look at a regarding overview at Wikivoyage.

General information

All considerations regarding nudity and law gathered here have been carefully researched using numerous sources (laws, comments, opinions, grounds for judgments etc.). However, the authors are not lawyers. Therefore, the considerations cannot be considered as legally binding statements (if possible at all) and do not replace legal advice.