韓國民法典的修正及其背景

韓國歷史上曾長期受到中國法律和文化的影響，19世界末葉主動進行的法律改革，因日本的侵略而中斷，私法領域不得不大量援用日本的法律。二戰後韓國積極制定並頒布了自己的民法典，但因受當時的知識背景及其他條件的制約，加之20世紀60年代以後韓國經濟的高速騰飛，民法典很快便顯現出與自身社會發展不相適應的弊端。數十年來，韓國立法當局雖曾對民法典做了若干次修正，但仍不能充分反映時代的發展。目前一項擬議中的民法典修正案正在緊張地籌畫之中。

Korea had been strongly influenced by the traditional Chinese law and culture in her long history. Before the end of 19th century, the Korean effort to modernize her legal system was interrupted by Japanese invasion. The Japanese law was imported and widely applied in the area of private law. Once upon the establishment of the Republic of Korea, the government drafted her own Civil Code and enacted it soon. However, as the restriction of intellective background of the time, together with the rapid transformation of Korean society and its economic development since the mid 1960’s, the Korean Civil Code demonstrated certain deficiencies soon after its enforcement. Although the Korean National Assembly had amended it several times within the decades, the Civil Code still failed to accommodate these changes. Currently, a new proposal for amending the Civil Code is in process.