PARIS — From now on, making sexual jokes, hugging a reluctant employee or looking insistently at a young lady up and down will become reprehensible acts in France. On Tuesday, the country adopted a far-reaching sexual harassment law which punishes offenders with up to two years in jail and a fine of 30,000 euros, almost $37,000. The new law defines harassment as “imposing on someone, in a repeated way, words or actions that have a sexual connotation” and either “affecting the person’s dignity because of their degrading or humiliating nature” or putting him or her in an “intimidating, hostile or offensive situation.”

Offenders can also face up to three years in jail and a $53,000 fine for more serious offenses, like sexually harassing a minor under 15 years old or a person who is physically disabled or ill.

The new law will replace legislation that had been on the books for 10 years before it was thrown out in May by the Constitutional Court. Its ruling came after a deputy mayor who had been convicted of harassing three employees complained that the law was too vague. Several cases of sexual harassment have been frozen or dismissed since May, leaving what Najat Vallaud-Belkacem, France’s minister for women’s rights, called “a dangerous void.”

Under the old law, which was modified in 2002, the notion of sexual harassment was restricted to “obtaining favors of a sexual nature,” and was punishable by a year in jail and a fine of about $18,500.

According to government figures, 1,000 legal cases of sexual harassment are registered every year, but far fewer lead to sentences. For example, from 2005 to 2010, about 80 sexual harassment cases a year resulted in sentences, the figures show.

The new bill was hailed by many groups, particularly feminists, as a significant step toward women’s rights in a country where sexism and gender inequalities often provide a fertile ground for sexual harassment. “Women will finally have a bill to protect them,” said Mrs. Vallaud-Belkacem on RTL radio on Tuesday.

Many legislators said it had no direct link to the case of Dominique Strauss-Kahn, but some also acknowledge that the Strauss-Kahn case set off soul-searching about France’s laissez-faire attitude toward the impunity of the powerful.

What is your reaction to the news? Does it leave you with a feeling that “it’s about time” France became serious about fighting sexual harassment? Does it leave you concerned that after having a sometimes uniquely French view of sex and sexual relations that the country risks falling into an American-style sexual correctness? Or something else entirely? Let us know.