The Taipei High Administrative Court on Thursday ordered a household registration office to register a same-sex marriage involving a foreign national from a jurisdiction in which such marriages are illegal.
Taipei’s Zhongzheng District Household Registration Office had refused to register the marriage of Taiwanese Ting Tse-yan (丁則言) and his Macanese partner, Guzifer Leong (梁展輝), when they attempted to do so on Oct. 1, 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 laws of each party.”
It means that same-sex couples involving a partner from a nation or area in which same-sex marriage is illegal — such as Macau — cannot marry in Taiwan or have a marriage conducted in a third nation legally recognized.
In its ruling, the administrative court cited Article 6 of the same act, which states that in specific situations where Taiwanese courts must consider the civil laws of foreign jurisdictions, the foreign law should be applied unless that nation’s laws specifically state that Taiwanese law should be applied.
Under the Macau Civil Code, legal jurisdiction for civil matters is based on a person’s place of “habitual residence,” it said.
Therefore, since Leong is a resident of Taiwan, Taiwanese law allowing same-sex marriage should take precedent, it added.
The court ordered the household registration office to validate the registration that the couple submitted in 2019.
Leong on Thursday thanked the court for its ruling, while noting that many other international same-sex couples in Taiwan have found themselves in the same situation.
Leong, who came to Taiwan in 2017 and runs a small bakery with his partner, said that he has long come to regard Taiwan as his home.
As of press time last night, it was unclear whether the household registration office would appeal the decision.
Chiu Shih-jung (邱士榮), director of the neighboring Daan Household Registration Office, said that the ruling likely “was not final” and that it applied only to the specific couple.
The bigger issue is that laws on how to treat international same-sex marriages lack uniformity, Chiu said.
“Civil servants hope that legal amendments correcting this situation will quickly be passed, so that they have a clear legal process to follow,” he said, referring to the Judicial Yuan in January approving draft legal amendments that would recognize nearly all same-sex marriages.
The amendments, which would revise Article 46 to recognize all same-sex marriages as long as one of the partners is Taiwanese, are awaiting Executive Yuan approval.
They would then need to be passed by the legislature.
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
A wild live dugong was found in Taiwan for the first time in 88 years, after it was accidentally caught by a fisher’s net on Tuesday in Yilan County’s Fenniaolin (粉鳥林). This is the first sighting of the species in Taiwan since 1937, having already been considered “extinct” in the country and considered as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. A fisher surnamed Chen (陳) went to Fenniaolin to collect the fish in his netting, but instead caught a 3m long, 500kg dugong. The fisher released the animal back into the wild, not realizing it was an endangered species at
The High Prosecutors’ Office yesterday withdrew an appeal against the acquittal of a former bank manager 22 years after his death, marking Taiwan’s first instance of prosecutors rendering posthumous justice to a wrongfully convicted defendant. Chu Ching-en (諸慶恩) — formerly a manager at the Taipei branch of BNP Paribas — was in 1999 accused by Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾), then-president of Chia Her Industrial Co, of forging a request for a fixed deposit of US$10 million by I-Hwa Industrial Co, a subsidiary of Chia Her, which was used as collateral. Chu was ruled not guilty in the first trial, but was found guilty
DEADLOCK: As the commission is unable to forum a quorum to review license renewal applications, the channel operators are not at fault and can air past their license date The National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday said that the Public Television Service (PTS) and 36 other television and radio broadcasters could continue airing, despite the commission’s inability to meet a quorum to review their license renewal applications. The licenses of PTS and the other channels are set to expire between this month and June. The National Communications Commission Organization Act (國家通訊傳播委員會組織法) stipulates that the commission must meet the mandated quorum of four to hold a valid meeting. The seven-member commission currently has only three commissioners. “We have informed the channel operators of the progress we have made in reviewing their license renewal applications, and
RSS