Decriminalising adultery

TAIWAN’S top court yesterday nullified a decades-old criminal adultery law under which having extramarital affairs could result in jail time.

The court revoked Article 239 of Taiwan’s Criminal Code, which stipulated that “a married person who commits adultery with another shall be sentenced to imprisonment for not more than one year; the other party to the adultery shall be subject to the same punishment”.

Hsu Tzong-li, president of the Judicial Yuan, the judicial branch of Taiwan’s government, said the law had been nullified because it seriously undermined personal sexual autonomy and privacy.

“After the decriminalisation of adultery, people can rely on the

Civil Code to protect family and marriage,” Judicial Yuan Secretarygeneral Lin Hui-huang told a news conference in Taipei.

The court also nullified an article in the criminal code stating that, in an adultery case, the withdrawal of a complaint against a spouse shall not be considered to be a withdrawal against the other adulterer.

The ruling was handed down several weeks after oral arguments, which saw the Ministry of Justice cite a number of surveys showing that 70% of the population opposes the decriminalisation of adultery. | dpa