1. CONTENTS (1) RESEARCH OBJECTIVES The government amended the Special Measures Law on the compensation of land included in rivers on June 26, 2009, in which the land compensated by the Special Measures Law is defined as a land that falls in river are...
1. CONTENTS (1) RESEARCH OBJECTIVES The government amended the Special Measures Law on the compensation of land included in rivers on June 26, 2009, in which the land compensated by the Special Measures Law is defined as a land that falls in river areas of national rivers or the first local class rivers. The nation or local government are trying to actively solve this problem for unpaid river sites that were included in rivers, but have not yet been compensated. However, local rivers other than national rivers confront civil complaints because related compensations have been postponed due to the shortage of finances in local governments. First of all, there are some systematic problems for the land compensation of unpaid river sites even though there are various reasons under this circumstance. Therefore, this study desires to suggest reformations by figuring out compensation systems and for loss of unpaid river sites and their status including existing problems. (2) RESEARCH METHOD The time and spatial scope of this study on the reformation of compensation system for unpaid river sites is from 1971 to the present, and the object of this study is the unpaid river sites that were included in national and local rivers in Korea. For a methodology used in this study, we examined some cases that were compensated for unpaid river sites being compensated focusing on national rivers according to the 'construction project for main 4 rivers,' taking into account some cases compensated thanks to the amendment of the Law of Rivers and suggested a reformation for them. (3) RESEARCH FINDINGS The Law of Rivers in Korea acknowledges only a nation's buy-back right excluding a claim for recapture of unfair profits or 'a claim for damages' under the Civil Law according to the state-owned river system. National rivers are being claimed for purchase according to special laws of the Special Measures Law on the compensation of land included in rivers, but the land compensations for local rivers(including small rivers) are being postponed despite a lot of recent civil complaints because local governments should compensate for them by local finances. While the percentage of rivers managed by the nation is 90%, that of rivers managed by the Korean government is less than 10%. Considering that private lands are being included in local rivers due to natural disasters such as floods in summer in Korea, special measures for compensation of the land included from local and small rivers are required at this point. However, more systematic compensation measures should be taken for local and small rivers at the time when the compensation for national rivers are nearly being completed. 2. RESULTS First, we need a reformation to extend a nation's buy-back right for river sites by upgrading local rivers into national rivers. Especially, the fact that a lot of lands are being included mainly in local and small rivers mostly in summer is full of suggestions. Under this circumstance, small rivers should be expanded into local rivers, and local rivers should be expanded national rivers, and thus, they should be compensated for loss according to the special laws. Second, the finances for the compensation of unpaid sites in local rivers should be expanded. Namely, related laws and regulation should be reviewed in order that the compensation for loss can be made by giving rent profits of the land owned by the nation as finances for local governments. Third, the system for active compensation of loss should be arranged by newly establishing departments that are exclusively in charge of the enactment of ordinance for compensation of unpaid river sites and the performance of compensation. Fourth, systematic compensations should be performed by using data through researches on the actual condition of unpaid river sites.