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Sham Tsz Kit v Secretary for Justice [2023] HKCFA 28 is a landmark Hong Kong Court of Final Appeal case which ruled that the right to form registered partnerships is guaranteed to same-sex couples by the right to privacy under Article 14 of the Bill of Rights.
Common-law marriage, also known as non-ceremonial marriage, [1] [2] sui iuris marriage, informal marriage, de facto marriage, more uxorio or marriage by habit and repute, is a marriage that results from the parties' agreement to consider themselves married, followed by cohabitation, rather than through a statutorily defined process.
Hong Kong Marriage Equality, a non-governmental organization, said in a statement that the judges' decisions made it clear that discrimination and differential treatment on the grounds of sexual orientation violate human dignity and equality. It called on the government to immediately end the exclusion of same-sex couples from marriage.
The age requirement for marriage is 22 years of age for men and 20 years of age for women and the 1980 law also encouraged late marriage and later child birth. [16] This provision in the law shows a change from the 1950 law which set the age requirements at 18 and 20 for women and men respectively, showing state support of marriage at a later age.
These national laws apply in Hong Kong by the Hong Kong legislature legislating on the same matter: for example, the Law of the People's Republic of China on the National Flag, a Chinese statute, takes effect in Hong Kong in form of the National Flag and National Emblem Ordinance, a local statute enacted by the local legislature.
On 5 September 2023, the Hong Kong Court of Final Appeal ordered the government in Sham Tsz Kit v Secretary for Justice to introduce a legal framework allowing same-sex civil unions. [1] Polling suggests that support for same-sex marriage is rising in Hong Kong, with a 2023 survey estimating that 60% of residents supported same-sex marriage. [2]
Marriage law is the body of legal specifications and requirements and other laws that regulate the initiation, continuation, and validity of marriages, an aspect of family law, that determine the validity of a marriage, and which vary considerably among countries in terms of what can and cannot be legally recognized by the state.
In May 2020, the National People's Congress announced that the NPCSC would enact a national security law tailored for Hong Kong in response to the 2019–20 Hong Kong protests. The law was added to Annex III and promulgated without being passed in the Legislative Council. [25] National laws can be applied if they only affect an area in Hong Kong.