Adultery came under Article 241 of the Criminal Code. According to the law, if a person who has a partner commits adultery, he will be imprisoned for up to two years. The person who commits adultery with the offender will also be punished in the same manner. The law criminalizing adultery was put in place in 1953 when Korea’s Criminal Law was first established, but it was abandoned by the courts for 62 years. The biggest reason for bringing an end to the adultery law was because it was thought that the country was invading the basic rights of people’s sexual freedom. On February 26 the adultery law was officially abolished, and the change came into effect right away.

Since 1953, our society had fierce disputes on whether to maintain or abolish the law. Some people insisted on monogamy, guaranteeing the family system, and protecting women. However, others insisted on the sexual rights and freedom of their private lives.

Group supporting the abolishment of the adultery law claimed it had been abolished worldwide. They argued that maintaining the family unit has to be at the will of people and their love will be for their family. Legal circles emphasized the adultery law broke up more couples than it maintained because when people accused their partner of adultery, they had to get divorced. In the process of getting divorced, despite their possible regret for committing adultery, they still had to end their marriage, and cut off their relationship entirely. Furthermore, the adultery law’s real imprisonment rate percentage was not even one percent, indicating there was no reason for it to exist as it was never enforced. Adversaries to the law believe that adultery should be morally criticized, but not punishable by law.

Proponents of the law insisted that adultery was controlled in some measure by its existence. They believe that if laws banning adultery were abolished, then family dissolutions will accelerate. They argue that abolishing our adultery law would bring about the collapse of our sexual morality. The National Council of Women also argued that abolishing the law would bring disorder to our sense of sexual morality, and would carelessly impact the protection of the women.

After the adultery law was struck down in Korea, people began focusing their attention on cases in foreign countries. According to the academic world there are some countries where the adultery law remains intact. Taiwan is one such country. In Taiwan, any person who has a spouse and commits adultery is sentenced to a maximum of one year in prison. Adultery laws still exist in 20 U.S.A. states, but they are almost never actually enforced.

Apart from these cases, laws banning adultery have been abolished in most countries. Germany has laws stating that persons who receive unfair treatment can extract revenge or monetary compensation but argue that adultery laws are not helpful in maintaining the sanctity of marriage and therefore abandoned them in 1969. France abolished their adultery laws in 1975, and punished only bigamy by one year imprisonment and a fine of 45,000 euros. Denmark abolished their adultery laws in 1930, Sweden in 1937, Spain in 1978, Switzerland in 1989, Austria in 1996, Norway in 1972, and Argentina in 1995.

The Dankook Herald interviewed Dr. Go Jun-gi (Doctor of laws) to hear a more professional opinion on the topic. Dr. Go said, “The adultery law was found to be unconstitutional four times so far. We can see that it reflects the current global trend and trend of times. With each decision, criminal punishment for the act of adultery became impossible to enforce. However, it is still illegal under the Civil Code and cannot be accepted by society as its immorality has not changed.”

Furthermore, Dr. Go emphasized that it is important to complement the system to minimize the negative effects by this decision. He said that by this decision, drawing up measures for secondclass citizens, building up child care policies and
other institution can result. Therefore, a strategic response would be to strengthen the social safety net.

Despite the fact that the response is still under discussion, the adultery law has already been found unconstitutional. No one can be sure what effect this constitutional decision will bring to our society, however many people are worried about a possible negative ripple effect on our social fabric. As a result, a security plan should be proposed as soon as possible. Korea made the decision: our adultery law is unconstitutional. Does this mean that Korea has become a society where the rights of an individual are preferred? The law may be unconstitutional, but it’s still regarded as immoral. As a result, we should continue to keep an eye on how we will respond to this change in the future.