Sixty judges and lawyers sparked controversy yesterday by deciding that oral sex is not a kind of intercourse.
Taiwan High Court spokesman Tsai Kuo-tsai (
The Taiwan High Court held its annual closed-door meeting for judges and lawyers from Wednesday to Friday. Tsai said that it was a meeting for judges and lawyers to brainstorm and discuss rare cases featuring controversial issues they have encountered over the past year.
During a meeting last week, a judge from the Shihlin District Court proposed a question whether oral sex should be regarded as committing adultery.
The judge raised a case where a woman had oral sex at her residence in Neihu with a man who she knew was married and was caught in bed by the man's wife. The judge asked his colleagues if the act constituted adultery.
According to Tsai, the group was divided over what constituted a fair ruling.
One of them argued that according to the Criminal Code, intercourse refers to any form of genital contact, including vaginal sex, anal sex or oral sex -- thus the two people had committed adultery.
The other group insisted that the Criminal Code states that adultery occurs when a man and woman consent to intercourse, which exists only in the case of genital-to-genital contact and oral sex should not be regarded as having sex.
The decision showed that 49 out of 60 meeting participants believed that oral sex should not be regarded as intercourse.
"These 60 participants were representatives from different courts and law firms. Since there is no law that clearly states whether oral sex is a form of intercourse, judges still possess full authorization to make their own decisions during trials," Tsai said.
"Whatever decision these participants came up with during the meeting will only be a reference for judges when they handle similar cases in the future," Tsai said.
A Taipei judge who wished to remain anonymous told the Taipei Times that the meeting's decision will actually complicate judges' work.
He believes that having oral sex is equivalent to adultery. He suggested that the Criminal Code be amended and to clearly state that oral sex is also a part of intercourse.
"If I understand their decision correctly, it seems to me that an adultery case will be dismissed right away if there is not a sufficient witness, evidence such as a used condom or both if defendants admit that they have only had oral sex, even if they did have intercourse," he said.
"If that is the case, a victim in an adultery case will not be protected by the law at all. It doesn't solve problems, it creates problems," he said.
An essay competition jointly organized by a local writing society and a publisher affiliated with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) might have contravened the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例), the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said on Thursday. “In this case, the partner organization is clearly an agency under the CCP’s Fujian Provincial Committee,” MAC Deputy Minister and spokesperson Liang Wen-chieh (梁文傑) said at a news briefing in Taipei. “It also involves bringing Taiwanese students to China with all-expenses-paid arrangements to attend award ceremonies and camps,” Liang said. Those two “characteristics” are typically sufficient
A magnitude 5.9 earthquake that struck about 33km off the coast of Hualien City was the "main shock" in a series of quakes in the area, with aftershocks expected over the next three days, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Prior to the magnitude 5.9 quake shaking most of Taiwan at 6:53pm yesterday, six other earthquakes stronger than a magnitude of 4, starting with a magnitude 5.5 quake at 6:09pm, occurred in the area. CWA Seismological Center Director Wu Chien-fu (吳健富) confirmed that the quakes were all part of the same series and that the magnitude 5.5 temblor was
The brilliant blue waters, thick foliage and bucolic atmosphere on this seemingly idyllic archipelago deep in the Pacific Ocean belie the key role it now plays in a titanic geopolitical struggle. Palau is again on the front line as China, and the US and its allies prepare their forces in an intensifying contest for control over the Asia-Pacific region. The democratic nation of just 17,000 people hosts US-controlled airstrips and soon-to-be-completed radar installations that the US military describes as “critical” to monitoring vast swathes of water and airspace. It is also a key piece of the second island chain, a string of
The Central Weather Administration has issued a heat alert for southeastern Taiwan, warning of temperatures as high as 36°C today, while alerting some coastal areas of strong winds later in the day. Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門) and Pingtung County’s Neipu Township (內埔) are under an orange heat alert, which warns of temperatures as high as 36°C for three consecutive days, the CWA said, citing southwest winds. The heat would also extend to Tainan’s Nansi (楠西) and Yujing (玉井) districts, as well as Pingtung’s Gaoshu (高樹), Yanpu (鹽埔) and Majia (瑪家) townships, it said, forecasting highs of up to 36°C in those areas
RSS