The Taipei High Administrative Court on Thursday revoked a decision by a household registration office not to permit a same-sex marriage involving a foreign national from a country in which such marriages are illegal, and proposed alternate legal grounds on which the marriage could be performed.
The Daan District Household Registration Office in Taipei refused to permit the marriage of Taiwanese gay rights activist Chi Chia-wei (祁家威) and his Malaysian partner when they attempted to do so on May 24, 2019.
The office based its decision on Article 46 of the Act Governing the Choice of Law in Civil Matters Involving Foreign Elements (涉外民事法律適用法), which states that “the formation of a marriage is governed by the national law of each party.”
In practice, this has meant that same-sex couples involving a partner from a country in which gay marriage is illegal — such as Malaysia — are not allowed to marry in Taiwan or have a marriage conducted in a third country legally recognized.
However, the administrative court revoked the office’s decision and ordered it to use a superior clause in the same law to register such marriages.
The clause it cited, Article 8, states that the laws of foreign states should not be applied if doing so leads to the violation of “the public order or boni mores [good morals] of the Republic of China.”
More broadly, the court found that the restrictions in Article 46 run contrary to the Council of Grand Justices’ Interpretation No. 748, which established the constitutional right to equal marriage.
However, the court noted that Chi’s partner has been unable to provide a certificate showing that he is single, and has said the COVID-19 pandemic and fear of legal repercussions in Malaysia have prevented him from applying for one.
For that reason, the office would not be required to register the marriage until it received the documentation, it said.
In remarks to the media, Chi said that the ruling was “half a win, half a loss,” but expressed hope that the legislature would soon consider amendments to recognize all international same-sex marriages.
Those amendments, proposed on Jan. 22 by the Judicial Yuan, would revise Article 46 to allow and recognize same-sex marriages as long as one of the partners is a Republic of China national.
The Judicial Yuan’s proposed revisions must be reviewed by the Executive Yuan before being jointly submitted by the two branches to the legislature for approval.
‘HIDDEN GEM’: The city earned plaudits for its low crime rate, world-class healthcare system, cheap cost of living and easy public transportation Taipei has been named the 10th best city in the world for quality of living in an annual survey by the editors of Monocle, a UK-based global affairs and lifestyle magazine. The survey, which is to be published in the magazine’s July/August issue, selected the world’s top 25 cities based on factors including cost of living, retail, hospitality, culture and access to green spaces, as well as feedback from Monocle correspondents. Taipei’s 10th place finish was one place down from a year earlier. The survey ranked Copenhagen as the world’s best city, with Zurich, Lisbon, Helsinki and Stockholm rounding out the top five.
GLOBAL STRATEGY: Indo-Pacific alliances need reinforcement to prevent Chinese occupation of Taiwan, which would threaten Japan, Hawaii and Australia, Pompeo said The US should officially recognize Taiwan as a free, independent nation and establish official diplomatic ties, former US secretary of state Mike Pompeo told an event at the Hudson Institute in Washington on Friday. Every US president since Harry Truman has considered Taiwan’s existence to be of utmost importance to US national security, Pompeo said. Taiwan is a principal US partner in technology and economic matters, and if China were to capture Taiwan’s semiconductor supply chain, it would severely hamper the US economy, Pompeo said. Should China occupy Taiwan, it would severely weaken US influence in the Indo-Pacific region and its surrounding areas,
NO COMORBIDITIES: The girl died of encephalitis, the sixth COVID-19-related death of the disease this year and 19th death of a child from the virus, the center said The Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) yesterday reported 52,213 new domestically transmitted COVID-19 cases and 171 deaths from the virus, including a four-year-old girl, who had been diagnosed with encephalitis, and a 19-year-old man, who had underlying health conditions. “The caseloads are usually higher on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, but they [yesterday] fell 7.3 percent from the day before,” Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Deputy Director-General Chuang Jen-hsiang (莊人祥) said. Chuang, who is the CECC’s spokesman, said that most cities and counties reported a drop in new cases, and the CECC expects fewer than 50,000 new cases today. The center said that 150 of
LIMIT: The CECC has capped the number of weekly arrivals to 25,000, which critics said has limited the number of available flights and caused ticket prices to soar The government is not likely to raise the cap on the number of inbound travelers before the end of this month, despite the apparent effect on the number of inbound flights, Minister of Transportation and Communications Wang Kwo-tsai (王國材) said yesterday. The Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) on Wednesday last week eased quarantine rules for inbound travelers, who must undergo three days of home quarantine upon arrival and spend another four days in self-initiated disease prevention. It also capped the number of inbound travelers to 25,000 per week. The weekly limit has drawn criticism that it has limited the number of flights
RSS