Supreme court ruled current marriage laws' failure to guarantee marriage equality unconstitutional

Starting a new thread because this is huge. Out of the many many ways to achieve marriage equality, this has to be the fastest route.

The Supreme court basically said this is no longer up for debate, get a law ready and pass it.

TAIWAN No. ONE (to achieve marriage equality in East Asia…, but yay anyways)

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My Chinese is not good enough and Google-translate is the pits…

Does the article basically say that the judge ruled the current law doesn’t guarantee/protect all kinds of marriages and must therefore be changed to protect the rights of same-sex couples?

A bit more specifically, that existing law’s failure to provide for same-sex marriage is unconstitutional, and the Ministry of Justice should investigate ways of amending it so that same-sex couples have the right to register their marriages legally.

大法官最終認為,我國現行法律未保障同性婚姻屬違憲,法務部應研擬修法,讓同性伴侶也有合法結婚登記權利。

I’m unsure of the exact meaning of 研擬 in this legal context.

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研擬 basically just means the Ministry of Justice need to come up with a proposal to fix the issue after some research.

That’s what I figured, but that’s not exactly the same as saying it has to be changed, is it?

That’s implied in 應, which means they must do it. Also, it’s hard to justify keeping existing laws after they’ve been ruled unconstitutional.

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Not entirely sure if it’s up to par with news ltn, but here’s an English article from the news lense

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Cool. Anything to separate our image and get us on the map away from China’s facist rule is good with me.

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That’s a very well written article actually.

I especially enjoyed reading this paragraph.

If parliament does not make the change within two years, the court said same-sex couples could register to marry regardless, based on its interpretation.

Neat! Took a while, but being it such a relatively new topic in Asia I can’t blame them for taking a fairly long time.

This is … second best case scenario possible. Kinda a relief I’d say.

This is good news indeed. Nice to know that not all of the judges are dinosaurs.

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Interesting article from China’s Global Times

Kind of weird if they pass this law and yet keep adultery illegal and a criminal act. Even China has properly put that as a civil not a criminal offence.

It will be decriminalised soon.

In Asia actually. No other country in Asia has done it. Israel doesn’t have civil marriage.

It would be a fun game to take virtual bets over which Asian country will be the next.

A summary (English and Chinese) and the 理由書 can be found here:
http://jirs.judicial.gov.tw/GNNWS/NNWSS002.asp?id=267570

One recusal, one dissent and one partial dissent. The 理由書 cites opinions of the WHO, the American Psychological Association, the World Psychiatric Association, and, wait for it: the US Supreme Court (Obergefell v. Hodges).

Dissenting opinions were filed by Justice Huang Horng-shya (黃虹霞) and Justice Wu Chen-huan (吳陳鐶).

“Marriage is a union between a man and a woman, who live life together as an institution, which is protected by the Constitution. Making changes would involve altering social and cultural values, which should not be made by merely copying developments in other nations… Therefore, the decision to legalize same-sex marriage should be made by a referendum,” Wu said.

It is a fallacy to rule that Civil Code provisions are unconstitutional, Huang Horng-shya said.

Same-sex marriage is not a fundamental human right to be universally protected, she said.

She said that she supports legislating legal protections of civil unions for same-sex adults, but does not view a homosexual union the same way as a marriage between a man and a woman.


Now for the fallout:

The interpretation represents “the elite of the nation’s judiciary system bullying the majority opinion of the public,” alliance convener Yu Hsin-yi (游信義) said, adding that it is wrong for the “lawmaking body to interfere with justice.”

“We are very disappointed with the ruling and plan to continue to fighting against it with all our might,” Yu told an improptu news conference at the rally site. “We plan to request that the Control Yuan conduct a probe into the grand justices.”

He said the grand justices had “rigged the process” by calling expert witnesses to testify, none of whom stood for traditional family values or the protection of the sacred institution of marriage.

They weren’t satisfied with the government’s representative testifying on behalf of a certain interpretation of Confucianism? Maybe they think he’s not an expert. :idunno:

And for foreigners:

In response to media queries over whether same-sex foreign nationals could register their marriage in Taiwan, Lu did not give a direct answer, but said they would have to abide by provisions in the Act Governing the Choice of Law in Civil Matters Involving Foreign Elements (涉外民事法律適用法).


From the Global Times article:

"The ruling proves that same-sex marriage is acceptable in Chinese culture, and is likely for the Chinese mainland to legalize gay marriage within a decade," Li Yinhe, a sociologist at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times on Wednesday.

Lmao.

Change that country to Japan then I might buy it.

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A great day for Taiwan and equality. In FB comments on articles about it I see some God-botherers (mostly non-Taiwanese) crying about how “horrible it is” and “how they’re letting in sin.” Oh piss off with your magic man in the sky nonsense.

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I agree Japan is definitely next. In fact it’s already kinda happening… https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/mar/31/tokyos-shibuya-ward-same-sex-marriage