National law

Nothing in the Strafgesetzbuch makes being naked a crime. § 183a punishes performing sexual acts in public and thereby deliberately causing offence — up to a year — and § 183 covers exhibitionism. Both need sexual conduct. Standing naked is not it, which is the legal room in which a century of Freikörperkultur sits.

What a town can do about it

The bite is administrative, not criminal. § 118 OWiG makes a grob ungehörige Handlung — grossly improper conduct liable to harass the public — a regulatory offence carrying a fine. It is the provision under which naked sunbathing outside an FKK area is actually ticketed, and it leaves the judgement to the officer and the setting rather than to a bright line.

Live disputes

• Where it is expressly provided forAreas signed FKK-Bereich — lake shores, park sections, dedicated beaches — are unambiguous, and are how German practice resolves an otherwise open question.source ↗

National law

Nudity in itself is not an offence in England and Wales. Section 66 of the Sexual Offences Act 2003 requires that a person intentionally expose their genitals and intend that someone see them and be caused alarm or distress. Both limbs must be met, so nakedness without that intent is not the offence — which is why British Naturism can hold public events at all.

What a town can do about it

That test was rewritten this year. Section 113 of the Crime and Policing Act 2026 substitutes s.66(1): alarm, distress or humiliation now qualifies, and a second limb catches exposure for sexual gratification where the person is reckless as to whether a viewer is caused alarm, distress or humiliation. The naturist's defence still rests where it did — on the absence of sexual purpose — but recklessness is a lower bar than intent, and this is the live text to watch.

Live disputes

• The fallback chargeWhere s.66 cannot be made out, the practical provision is s.5 of the Public Order Act 1986 — threatening or abusive words or disorderly behaviour within sight of someone likely to be caused harassment, alarm or distress. Summary only, and not imprisonable.source ↗
• The guidance that used to sit hereThe CPS published legal guidance on handling naturism cases — reviewed September 2022 — advising no action absent a sexual context or intent, unless the public were actually caused alarm rather than merely likely to be. That page no longer resolves on cps.gov.uk (checked 14 August 2026), so this entry rests on the statutes rather than on prosecutorial policy we can still point you to.source ↗

National law

There is no Norwegian law against being naked in public. What exists is straffeloven § 298, which punishes ‘sexually offensive or otherwise indecent behaviour’ in a public place or towards someone who has not consented — a fine or up to a year. The word doing the work is sexually. This is the section used against flashing, where the intent is the point; nakedness is not sexual in itself.

What a town can do about it

The federation's own reading, published on its site, is that two sections have occasionally been turned on naked bathers: § 298, and § 266, which covers frightening or harassing conduct that violates another person's peace. It argues § 266 should only apply where the offence was meant to be noticed. Against that sits allemannsretten, the statutory right to roam under the friluftsloven, which lets anyone be in open country and along the shore regardless of who owns it, provided they behave considerately.

Live disputes

• Where the line actually fallsEvery source says the same thing in the same order: naked on a naturist beach or a remote rock, no problem; naked in a shopping centre, quickly a different question. It turns on time, place and who is standing there.source ↗

National law

Nudity is not named in Czech law at all. The nearest thing is § 5(1)(e) of Act 251/2016 Sb., which makes it a přestupek — an administrative offence, not a crime — to ‘cause public offence’. Above it sits § 358 of the criminal code, disorderly conduct, but that needs gross indecency or a disturbance, and carries up to two years.

What a town can do about it

The Supreme Administrative Court set the bar and then said nakedness does not clear it. In 2 As 69/2003 it held that ‘public offence’ requires three things at once: the act must be public; it must subjectively offend more than two people normally present at the same time; and it must conflict with the content of morality on which society agrees — not the official's own view of morality. Applying that, the court found baring the body is offensive when it is sexual, when it draws attention to a deformity, or when the whole point is to shock; otherwise it is less offensive than the bodies used in advertising, and the offensiveness of the naked body is ‘a matter of discussion rather than of the general rejection’ the offence would require. It quoted a 1935 judgment for contrast, which had found public offence in ‘the camping together of persons of different sexes in nature’.

Live disputes

• What it means in practiceThree people have to be offended at the same time and complain — no complainant, no case. The federation has been negotiating naked swimming sessions with municipal pools on that basis, and Mladá Boleslav agreed.source ↗

National law

The offence turns entirely on intent. Section 45(1) of the Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Act 2017 makes it a crime to expose your genitals intending to cause fear, distress or alarm to another person — so being naked, without that intent, is not the offence. Subsection (3) adds ‘offensive conduct of a sexual nature’, defined as behaviour of a sexual nature likely to cause fear, distress or alarm. Naturism is neither.

What a town can do about it

What it replaced was struck down. Section 18 of the Criminal Law Amendment Act 1935 punished any act ‘in such a way as to offend modesty or cause scandal or injure the morals of the community’ — and in 2014 the High Court declared it unconstitutional in Douglas v DPP, for vagueness. The 2017 section was written to fill the hole, and in filling it Parliament chose to require intent. The Director of Public Prosecutions’ own conference paper describes s.45 as ‘obviously intended to replace’ the invalidated 1935 provision.

Live disputes

• What the federation tells its membersThe Irish Naturist Association reads s.45 as having, in effect, legalised naturism, while noting the section has not yet been tested in court. It publishes a public calendar of beach meetups, saunas and swims accordingly — and still asks members for discretion and common sense.source ↗

National law

The Netherlands is one of the few countries to write naturism into statute. Article 430a Sr is phrased as a prohibition and reads as a permission: you commit an offence only by being undressed, outside a place the municipal council has designated as suitable, at a public place that is not suitable for nude recreation. A first-category fine, and no criminal record.

What a town can do about it

Councils may designate, but they cannot forbid. In 2015 the Hoge Raad held that places the council has not designated can still be suitable, and that suitability turns on the facts case by case — testing whether nude recreation is locally accepted, whether third parties face unwanted confrontation, and whether public order is disturbed. It rejected the appeal court's narrower reading that only the self-evidently unsuitable could qualify.

Live disputes

• What the wording gives youBecause the offence is defined by unsuitability, a naturist may judge an undesignated spot for themselves — and if ticketed, it is for the prosecution to show the place was unsuitable at that moment.source ↗

National law

Portugal did not merely decline to criminalise naturism — it legislated it. Lei n.º 92/88 legalised the practice, and the regime now runs on Lei n.º 53/2010, which defines naturist spaces: beaches, pools, water parks, spas, gyms, tourist developments, restaurants. The law's own definition frames naturism as outdoor living using nudity to develop physical and mental health through full integration with nature.

What a town can do about it

Authorisation is municipal. On a proposal from the câmara municipal or at the request of a naturist association, the municipal assembly may designate a beach wholly or partly naturist, provided it can be signed effectively, offers bathing conditions, and as a rule sits at least 750 m from the nearest urban settlement, school, holiday camp or place of worship — unless visual barriers already protect them. Designated beaches must be signposted at least 100 m before their limits.

Live disputes

• Places that predate the lawWhere naturism was already established when the law came into force, practice in public spaces remains permitted, subject to recognition by government order after consulting the municipalities and the naturist associations.source ↗
• The 1988 originalLei n.º 92/88 — the act that legalised the practice, and set the condition that still runs through the regime: naturism is permitted so long as it is unaccompanied by conduct liable to cause scandal.source ↗