台灣國際收養的現狀與課題

A Study on the Plea-Bargain System in the United States and How Can Taiwan Learn from Its Experiences

第二次世界大戰結束後，國際間開始出現大量的國際收養，惟各國早期的國際收養實務未對被收養人、本生父母及收養人提供充分的保護措施。為防治國際收養濫用現象，海牙國際私法會議於 1993 年通過「海牙有關國際收養之兒童保護及合作公約」，該公約已成為國際收養法律規範的國際標準。台灣雖是相當發達的國家，但近年的相關統計顯示，台灣兒童被外國人收養的件數仍占相當比例。針對此類外國人收養台灣兒童的國際收養類型，過去在台灣法制上，除涉外民事法律適用法（下稱「涉民法」）的選法規則外，尚無特別規範或管制。惟近年立法者開始針對國際收養建立特別規範，而這些規範及國際收養實務是否符合海牙收養公約的國際標準，急需檢視。此外，台灣男子與外籍女子（主要為東南亞籍女子）結婚後，收養其婚前所生子女的國際繼親收養，亦有所增加。而上述兩種國際收養類型，在法院實務運作上遇到的課題各有不同，須分別進行探討。有鑑於此，本文首先簡要介紹海牙收養公約的主要架構；接著分析我國近年引進的國際收養相關規範及主管機關公布的統計資料；進而檢討涉民法收養成立的選法規範在立法論上的妥當性，並分析其具體適用方式後，針對法院實務上經常遇到的重要議題進行綜合研究。

After the end of World War II, a large number of international adoptions began to take place, but the early international adoption practices of various countries did not provide sufficient protection measures for the adoptees, their biological parents and adopters, resulting in the abuse of international adoption, which was “trading children in the name of adoption”. In order to prevent this abuse, the Hague Conference on Private International Law adopted the “Hague Convention on Protection of Children and Co-operation in Respect of Intercountry Adoption” in 1993, which has been successfully acceded to by many countries and has become an international standard for the legal regulation of international adoption. Although Taiwan is a fairly developed country, recent statistics show that the number of children adopted by foreigners in Taiwan still accounts for a significant proportion of all adoption cases. In the past, Taiwan's legal system did not specifically regulate or control international adoptions, except for the rules on the applicable law. However, in recent years, legislators have begun to establish special regulations for international adoptions, and there is an urgent need to examine whether these regulations and international adoption practices comply with the international standards of the Hague Adoption Convention. In addition, there has been an increase in the number of international adoptions by step-parents of children born before the marriage between a Taiwanese man and a foreign woman (mainly a Southeast Asian woman). The two types of international adoptions mentioned above are different in terms of the court practice and need to be examined separately. In view of this, this article first briefly introduces the main framework of the Hague Adoption Convention; then analyzes the international adoption-related legal norms introduced in Taiwan in recent years and the statistics published by the competent authorities; then reviews the appropriateness of the choice of law rule on the establishment of international adoption under Article 54 (1) of the Act Governing the Choice of Law in Civil Matters Involving Foreign Elements, and analyzes how to interpret this provision, and then conducts a comprehensive study on the important issues in court practice.