Korean Court Scraps Adultery Ban, Condom Stock Soars
Here's one way to get a rise out of a
stock price. South Korea's highest court on Thursday struck down as
unconstitutional a decades-old law banning adultery, triggering a surge
in shares of condom makers and morning-after pills.
The 1953 law aimed to
protect women in a male-dominated society where divorce was rare, by
making marital infidelity punishable with jail. "The law is
unconstitutional as it infringes people's right to make their own
decisions on sex and secrecy and freedom of their private life,
violating the principle banning excessive enforcement," said Seo
Ki-seok, a Constitutional Court judge, reading an opinion on behalf of
five judges.
Seven members of the
nine-judge panel deemed the law to be unconstitutional. After the
ruling, shares in Unidus Corp, which makes latex products, including
condoms, soared to the 15 percent daily limit gain. Hyundai
Pharmaceutical Co Ltd, a maker of morning-after birth control pills and
pregnancy tests, ended up 9.7 percent.
Posted by Soft eyes
on 1:35 AM.
Filed under
Business,
Europe news,
Market
.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0