South Korean court legalized adultery

FEBRUARY 26, 2015 BY ALJAZEERA
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South Korea’s Constitutional Court has struck down a 60-year-old
statute outlawing adultery under which violators faced up to two years
in prison.
The nine-member bench ruled by seven to two that the 1953 law was
unconstitutional in a judgement handed down on Thursday.
“Even if adultery should be condemned as immoral, state power should
not intervene in individuals’ private lives,” said presiding justice Park
Han-Chul.
It was the fifth time the apex court had considered the constitutional
legality of the legislation which had made South Korea one of the few
non-Muslim countries to regard marital infidelity as a criminal act.
In the past six years, close to 5,500 people have been formerly
arraigned on adultery charges – including nearly 900 in 2014.
But the numbers had been falling, with cases that end in prison terms
increasingly rare.
Whereas 216 people were jailed under the law in 2004, that figure had
dropped to 42 by 2008, and since then only 22 have found themselves
behind bars, according to figures from the state prosecution office.
The downward trend was partly a reflection of changing societal trends
in a country where rapid modernisation has frequently clashed with
traditionally conservative norms.