1996년 민법개정안과 일본이혼법의 변화 = The Proposition for Revisions in the Civil Law of 1996 and the Change of the Divorce Law in Japan

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

The Legislative Deliberation Council, an advisory committee to the Minister of Justice of Japan, adopted a resolution for the Proposition for Revisions in the Civil Law in 1996. The Proposition, which was regarded as a governmental response to the social pressure to redress the sexual inequality within a family, included revisions of family laws such as the Spouses`Free Selection of Family Name as well as partial revisions in the divorce law. The main features of the Proposition in the divorce law area were the limitation of the period of separation to 5 years as a cause for divorce in a law suit and the limitation of the discretionary power of judges in a divorce suit. The Proposition was expected to intensify the no-fault element in the Japanese divorce law. The Proposition has influenced court decisions on a divorce suit from a guilty spouse since the 2000s even though it is not legislated yet.
The purpose of this article is to introduce and analyze the revisions of divorce law included in the Proposition for Revisions in the Civil Law of 1996, and to evaluate its influence on the growing tendency of no-fault divorce in the Japanese divorce court. The no-fault divorce, which puts an emphasis on the individual`s right for happiness over the protection of a less privileged spouse, has been firmly established in the advanced industrial democracies since the 1970`s, while Korea is still under the fault based divorce law. By analyzing the Proposition for Revisions in Civil Law of 1996, this study attempts to give suggestions for the introduction of no-fault elements into the Korean divorce law, as well as to urge social attention to the revision of divorce law in Korea.