부산대학교 도서관

A Study of Same-sex Marriage in South Korea and Germany’s Act on Registered Life Partnerships The Seoul Western District Court recently a gay couple’s lawsuit against a district office for refusing to accept the couple’s marriage registration application. While this was a reasonable ruling, grounded on the interpretation of the Constitution and the domestic relations law and the justice theory, it also reminded us that the judiciary cannot address the issue of same-sex marriage by reinterpreting existing laws. In essence, legal conflicts concerning same-sex marriage require a legislative solution, not a court ruling, to be resolved. As sexual minorities’ human rights (or LGBT rights) are becoming a highly debated topic in South Korea, the example of Germany, which has been able to uphold human dignity and realize equality for all through “equal treatment,” can provide guidance on the subject matter. German political parties and civic society held rational and democratic debates and negotiations on the issue, based on which the German parliament passed the Act on Registered Life Partnerships Lebenspartnerschaftsgesetz), and the Federal Constitutional Court demonstrated judicial activism to make a ruling accordingly. The German FCC played the most important role in finding new ways to provide life partnership the same legal treatment as marriage by broadly interpreting the Act on Registered Life Partnerships, while simultaneously protecting the value of marriage and family safeguarded under Article 6 of the Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany. Before making any significant political decisions, Chancellor Angela Merkel and the leadership of the ruling party awaited the FCC’s judgment; they then adopted a conservative response measure that did not conflict with the court’s decision. Merkel and her socially conservative party (the Christian Democratic Union of German) respected the court’s decision to treat life partnership equally in terms of successive adoption or tax codes, but they also held firm on their conservative views regarding marriage and family protected by the Basic Law. By legalizing life partnership in accordance with Germany’s approach, South Korea – a nation whose constitution defines marriage based on gender equality – could maintain marriage’s historical and cultural values, in addition to its legal definition, while resolving discrimination that sexual minorities (i.e., the LGBT community), especially same-sex couples, face when, for example exercising daily household agency rights, arranging for co-payment of life expenses, claiming for division of property, or granting consent for medical procedures.