France, Oct. 19 -- The closely watched trial of a man accused of drugging his wife and inviting others to rape her while she lay unconscious at their home in the south of France has become a rallying cry for those who say society needs to change the way it thinks about sexual assault. Fifty years ago, another rape case caused similar outcry - and led to lasting changes in French law.

"You know, this isn't just one rape trial at stake."

So said Gisele Halimi, the activist lawyer responsible for turning a 1974 case into a public interrogation of France's attitudes to rape.

Together with the two victims, she decided to put the French legal system itself on trial - and it would be found wanting.

Now, as another case exposes shortcomings i...