Recent trend and issues in amending family law in Korea

Abstract

Civil law countries generally include family law in their respective civil codes. The Republic of Korea is not the exception under this aspect. The Korean Civil Code which was enacted in 1958 and came into force in 1960 is structured on the base of the Pandekten system. Based on it, Part IV of the Civil Code is the law on relatives. The Korean Civil Code since its coming into effect on January 1, 1960 has been amended twenty nine times, among which thirteen amendments concerned the revision of the law on relatives. Given that general reluctance to amend the Civil Code in Korea, the relative regularity of the revisions show how significant the changes were that took place regarding family relations in the Korean society. A study of the history of amendments show that the factors of amending family law are three-fold. First, family law was amended for the purpose of gradual evolution of the Code by shedding elements of premodern law found therein. The amendments of 1962, 1977, 1990 and 2005 took place due to such a factor. Second, there were those amendments that were the result of the Korean Constitutional Court’s decision that determined that particular provisions inheritance were either unconstitutional or non-conformable to the Constitution. Third, family law was also amended in order to reflect the urbanization, industrialization, ageing of the Korean society and the rise of individualism, thereby strengthening the institution of family and affording more protection to the weak within the family. The latest amendment was the result of the latter. Among other things, the article pays some attention to the family legislation of North Korea, its specific features and unique structural differences from both the law of the Republic of Korea and the civilian tradition in general.