Seoul, South Korea (CNN)— For 62 years, if
you cheated on your husband or wife in
South Korea, you could end up in prison.
.
Not anymore.
.
South Korea's Constitutional Court on
Thursday overturned a law that made
adultery a crime, saying it violates the East
Asian nation's constitution.
.
"The precondition of human dignity and right
to pursue happiness is for each individual to
have their rights to choose their fate," the
court ruled, saying that one's sex life is
private. "And the rights to choose their fate
includes rights to be engaged in sex and
choosing the partner."
.
Up until then, anyone who cheated on their
spouse could be charged and, if convicted,
spent up to two years in prison. The same
penalty also applied to "the one who
fornicated with the" cheating spouse,
according to the Constitutional Court's
website.
But that's changing because South Korean
society has changed enough "to lose many
parts of (the anti-adultery law's) reason to
exist," the prevailing judges said, according
to a news release summarizing their
decision.
.
The chief reason for originally enacting the
adultery law was to protect women, these
justices contended. The idea was that men --
who tended to be economically and socially
more powerful -- took advantage of women.
And if a man was charged criminally, that
would give women more leverage in divorce
proceedings. (In other words, a wronged wife
might get more compensation after deciding
to drop the charges.)
Yet 2015 isn't 1953, when the law first went
into the affect, according to the judges. After
all, the current president of South Korea --
Park Geun-hye -- is a woman.
.
"Women are active socially and
economically, and women no longer apply as
economically weaker," these judges wrote.
"... In addition, the law cannot be viewed as
(exclusively) protecting women."
Seven judges signed on to this decision, but
two dissented.
.
The dissenting view said that legalizing
adultery hurts efforts to promote family in
South Korea. It points to statistics showing
40% of South Korean marriages since 2000
end in divorce. And between 2000 and 2006,
at least, 47.1% of those divorces came about
after one or more spouses cheated.
"Adultery and fornication go beyond a
person's rights (and) intrude on other people
and the community," these justices wrote.
"Considering that the relationship between
husband and wife is the fundamental element
of a family, the country and the society
should legally protect and maintain (this)
relationship."
.
The last time the South Korean court looked
at this law was 2008. Since then, according
to South Korean news agency Yonhap, some
5,500 people have been indicted on adultery
charges, though that doesn't mean they
ended up behind bars.
It was not immediately clear what will
happen to those cases, assuming they
haven't been resolved already.
But at least one entity that has reason to
celebrate after Thursday's ruling, Unidus, a
South Korean condom maker.
.
It's impossible to definitively say why, but
Undius' stock price did jump suddenly about
25 minutes after the decision came out. By
day's end, it was up a shade under 15% from
Wednesday.

http://www.cnn.com/2015/02/26/asia/south-korea-adultery/