Proposed amendments to the Civil Code that would lower the legal age of majority from 20 to 18, and set the minimum marriage age at 18 for men and women, on Wednesday passed a preliminary review by the Legislative Yuan’s Judiciary and Organic Laws and Statutes Committee.
During the review, the Ministry of Justice said that there is a high degree of consensus locally and internationally for setting the age of majority at 18.
Young people become psychologically mature at a younger age, largely due to their exposure to technology and mass media, the ministry said.
Japan in 2018 lowered its age of majority from 20 to 18, the ministry said, adding that in Taiwan’s legal system, 18 is the minimum age of responsibility for criminal and administrative penalties.
The proposal was approved with cross-party support in the committee, although it must still pass second and third readings by the full legislature to become law.
At the hearing, lawmakers also advanced proposals to set the minimum engagement age at 17 and the minimum marriage age at 18, for men and women.
They also proposed to remove a clause that allows minors to marry with the consent of a legal guardian.
The existing law states that to be engaged, men must be 17 and women 15, while men must be 18 and women 16 to marry.
Amending the legal age of majority in the Civil Code would affect private rights and duties such as legal guardianship, inheritance and property ownership, but would not change the voting age, which is set at 20 in the Constitution.
In September, the Legislative Yuan set up an ad hoc Constitutional Amendment Committee, which is expected to review a proposal to lower the voting age to 18 during the current legislative session.
The Taipei Zoo on Saturday said it would pursue legal action against a man who was filmed climbing over a railing to tease and feed spotted hyenas in their enclosure earlier that day. In videos uploaded to social media on Saturday, a man can be seen climbing over a protective railing and approaching a ledge above the zoo’s spotted hyena enclosure, before dropping unidentified objects down to two of the animals. The Taipei Zoo in a statement said the man’s actions were “extremely inappropriate and even illegal.” In addition to monitoring the hyenas’ health, the zoo would collect evidence provided by the public
A decision to describe a Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs statement on Singapore’s Taiwan policy as “erroneous” was made because the city-state has its own “one China policy” and has not followed Beijing’s “one China principle,” Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Tien Chung-kwang (田中光) said yesterday. It has been a longstanding practice for the People’s Republic of China (PRC) to speak on other countries’ behalf concerning Taiwan, Tien said. The latest example was a statement issued by the PRC after a meeting between Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財) and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) on the sidelines of the APEC summit
A road safety advocacy group yesterday called for reforms to the driver licensing and retraining system after a pedestrian was killed and 15 other people were injured in a two-bus collision in Taipei. “Taiwan’s driver’s licenses are among the easiest to obtain in the world, and there is no mandatory retraining system for drivers,” Taiwan Vision Zero Alliance, a group pushing to reduce pedestrian fatalities, said in a news release. Under the regulations, people who have held a standard car driver’s license for two years and have completed a driver training course are eligible to take a test
‘SIGN OF DANGER’: Beijing has never directly named Taiwanese leaders before, so China is saying that its actions are aimed at the DPP, a foundation official said National Security Bureau (NSB) Director-General Tsai Ming-yen (蔡明彥) yesterday accused Beijing of spreading propaganda, saying that Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) had singled out President William Lai (賴清德) in his meeting with US President Joe Biden when talking about those whose “true nature” seek Taiwanese independence. The Biden-Xi meeting took place on the sidelines of the APEC summit in Peru on Saturday. “If the US cares about maintaining peace across the Taiwan Strait, it is crucial that it sees clearly the true nature of Lai and the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) in seeking Taiwanese independence, handles the Taiwan question with extra