Condom stock surges after S. Korean court rules that adultery is not a crime
South Korea’s highest court has struck down a decades-old law banning adultery in the country.
The ruling sent shares in the country’s biggest condom maker, Unidus Corp, soaring to the 15 per cent daily limit gain.
The law was enacted in 1953 to protect women in a male-dominated society where divorce was rare. It made marital infidelity punishable by jail.
"The law is unconstitutional as it infringes people’s right to make their own decisions on sex and secrecy and freedom of their private life, violating the principle banning excessive enforcement under the constitution," said Seo Ki-seok, a Constitutional Court justice, reading an opinion representing five justices.
Seven members of the nine-judge panel deemed the law to be unconstitutional.
Damaging to social order
In 2008, the court had upheld the law, citing the society’s legal perception that adultery is damaging to social order.
Several thousand spouses file criminal adultery complaints each year in South Korea, although it is rare for someone to be jailed.
According to prosecutors, no one was put behind bars last year although 892 were indicted on adultery charges.
Source: Reuters
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