(1)Referring to Letter Fa-Lu-Zih 0950700257 of the Ministry of Justice dated April 3, 2006, “Marriage by ceremony has been practiced since the Civil Code was implemented in 1931. As marriage by ceremony involves various defects and problems, including:
- The public announcement effect of marriage by ceremony is weak and thus cannot prevent bigamy and protect the innocent third party.
- The applicability of marriage by ceremony lacks well-defined determination criteria and thus gives rise to disputes to affect the stability of status.
- As marriage is completed by ceremony but divorce is validated by registration, which are inconsistent, thus increasing troubles and other problems.
- Hence, after referring to the legislation of advanced countries and careful assessment, the Ministry of Justice decided to amend Article 982 of the Civil Code to change marriage by ceremony to marriage by registration for the following reasons. First, marriage registration involve government agency intervention, marriage is thus publicly announced to prevent bigamy derived from the weak public announcement effect and lack of well-defined applicability of marriage by ceremony. In addition, this matches with the divorce by registration system to resolve the trouble and contradiction between no registration for marriage and registration for divorce: when a couple who have not registered their marriage want to divorce, they need to register their marriage before they can continue with the divorce registration.”
(2) Referring to Article 982 of the Civil Code, “A marriage shall be made effective in writing and requires the signature of at least two witnesses, and by the registration at the household registration establishment.” Then, referring to Letter Fa-Lu-Zih 0970007661 of the Ministry of Justice dated March 12, 2008, the marriage registration requirement in Article 982 of the Civil Code emphasizes marriage registration as the major form of marriage. Therefore, the date of marriage registration at the household registration office should best be the effective date of marriage. That is, the effective date of marriage should be the date of completion of marriage registration to the household registration office. From May 23, 2008 onward, the effective date of marriage of couples registering their marriage in Taiwan should be the date of completion of marriage registration.