民法第972條等規定未允許同性婚姻合憲性之探討

The Constitutionality of the Same-sex Marriage Bans under Article 972, 973, 980 of the Civil Code

婚姻是家庭與社會的基礎，而傳統上之婚姻是以一男一女結合為其核心定義。然而，隨著社會快速變遷，如今社會中已存在各種共同生活型態。在此種社會背景下，同性伴侶應否與異性伴侶同等享有憲法上之婚姻與家庭制度之保障等問題，逐漸引起討論。
本文主要是從憲法平等權保護觀點審視現行民法第972條、第973條、第980條等規定是否因未允許同性婚姻而違憲。本文首先從傳統婚姻觀點、倫理價值或宗教信仰等觀點論證同性伴侶享有憲法第22條保障之結婚權。接著，本文從平等權觀點審查民法限制同性婚姻是否為合理的差別對待。由於無法達成正當或合法公共利益之實現，即使較低程度之「合理審查」基準都未能通過，更別提性傾向歧視案件所應適用較高程度之「嚴格審查」基準。因此，本文認為民法第972條、第973條、第980條等規定未能對同性伴侶提供婚姻制度，違反憲法第7條之平等保護原則而屬違憲。

Marriage is the foundation of the family and society. It is well es-tablished that marriage is essentially the union of a man and woman.  However, as the result of complex and changing social developments, there have been a wide variety of life unions.  In response to these developments, marriage equality for same-sex couples has been much discussed in recent years.
This Paper aims to consider the constitutionality of the same-sex marriage bans under Article 972, 973, 980 of the Civil Code.  This Article first recognizes same-sex couples have the fundamental right to marry contained in Article 22 of Constitution after considering the ar-guments from the view point of tradition, ethic and religion.  Second, this Paper presents that the prohibition on same-sex marriages violates Article 7 of Constitution’s guarantee of equal protection because of discrimination between opposite-sex couples and same-sex couples without the rational relation to a legitimate government interest, let alone the violation of the heightened standard applied to strict scrutiny review of sex-orientation discrimination cases.  Therefore, this Paper concludes that the same-sex marriage bans under Article 972, 973, 980 of the Civil Code is unconstitutional.