History of the Civil Act

The Civil Act or Civil Code (民法) is a general law which provides the general provisions on the social life, the rights on properties, family relationship and inheritance of a private person. Even though the modern civil law was imported from the Western world, namely the civil law countries through Japan, the Korean society had been governed by customary law and statutes called Gyeongkuk Daejeon (經國大典).

Now, the Civil Act is confronted with quickly changing socio-economic environment, which demands the revision of the Civil Act to meet the diversified needs of the Korean society.

Key words
Civil Act, Civil Code, private person, customary law, family law

Before the Modern Legislation
Until the Chosun Dynasty opened the ports for trade by concluding the Japan-Korea Treaty of Amity in 1876, all civil relations had been governed by customary law except for some provisions on farmland, family law and law of inheritance. Among these provisions, the provisions on substantive matter were stipulated in Yi-jeon, Ho-jeon and Ye-jeon, while those on procedural matter were stipulated in Hyeong-jeon. Thus, at that time, the Civil Code as unified and coherent as that of today was non-existent. After opening the ports for trade, the call for transition towards modern society grew stronger, particularly in the area of developing a new legal system.

Thus in June 1894, by the Grand Rule (洪範 14條), Legal Act No.7, the 'Legal Drafting Committee' was established. The Committee drafted bills on civil law, criminal law, commercial law, penal law and political law, leading to the legislation of Hyeongbeop Daejeon (Grand Criminal Code)」in 1905.

The contents also included provisions on substantive civil matters and civil procedures as well. The legislation of Civil Act was well in process, until the occupation by Japan crushed the aspiration for modern civil law. In 1912, by Act No. 7, the Japanese Empire enacted Chosun Minsaryeong (Chosun Civil Codes), which provided the grounds for 23 Japanese statutes including the Japanese Civil Code, a variety of special laws and adjective laws to be enforced in Korea.

Through the application of Japanese Civil Code, Korea came across the modern civil law virtually for the first time. This era of application of Japanese Civil Code continued until the current Civil Act came into force after the Liberalization in 1945.

After the Enactment of the Civil Act
The current Civil Act was enacted by Act No. 471 on February 22, 1958 and came into force on January 1 1960. With the Civil Act coming into force, Korea finally started to have its own modern Civil Code that established the rules governing private legal relations.

The preparation for the enactment of the Civil Act started right after the establishment of the government. On September 15, 1948, the Executive Order No. 4 promulgated 'the Organization of the Codification Committee'. The Codification Committee was organized according to the Order and began working on enactments of a variety of codes. The Committee was comprised of judges, prosecutors, legal experts on administration, law professors and other experienced scholars. Under the Committee were several subcommittees. The Civil Act was drafted by the Subcommittee on Civil law, of which the members were all appointed by the Codification Committee.

Due to the sudden breakout of Korean War, some of the members of the Codification Committee were kidnapped to North Korea, some were replaced, and a large amount of legislative data was lost. As a result, the process of enacting Civil Law was temporarily suspended. However, the process soon resumed and continued despite the time of distress, which led to the completion of the Draft on Jul. 4 1953.

In summary, it took four years and seven months, under the exceptional circumstances, to finally complete the Civil Act Draft. The Draft was soon to be transferred from the Codification Committee to the government, and the latter acknowledged the contents of the Draft without imposing any significant changes. Then the Draft was passed by the State Council after going through trivial reviews for the purposes of unifying languages and polishing provisions.

The Draft was approved by the President on October 13, 1954, and submitted to the National Assembly as a bill submitted by the government on October 26 in the same year. After this, the Draft was handed to the Legislation and Judiciary Committee, which organized the Subcommittee to preliminarily examine the Draft. The Subcommittee allocated the task among respective members and completed the preliminary examination on Sept. 1957. It recorded the past examining process in the the Record on Examination of the Civil Act Draft, which was composed of two volumes in total.

The Subcommittee to review the Civil Law examined the following foreign legislations: German Civil Law(Enacted in 1896, coming into force on January 1 1900), Swiss Civil Law (Enacted in 1907, coming into force on January 1, 1912), Swiss Law of Obligations(Enacted in 1881), French Civil Law (Enacted in 1904), Italian Civil Law (Enacted in 1942), the Civil Law of Republic of China(Enacted in 1929-1930), Manchurian Civil Law (Enacted in 1937), Anglo-Americal Law and the Soviet Union Civil Law (Enacted in 1927), etc.

After the passage by the plenary session of the National Assembly, the Civil Act was transferred to the government on February 5, 1958, and promulgated on February 22 in the same year by Act No. 471. It was not until approximately 10 years have passed since the Codification Committee first undertook the drafting process, that the goal of establishing the Civil Law of our own was finally accomplished. The Civil Act came into force on January 1, 1960 by Article 28 of the Addenda. At the time of the enactment, the Civil Act was composed of 1111 body provisions and 27 addenda.

Amendments to the Civil Act
The Civil Act which came into force on January 1, 1960 has undergone 19 times of amendments, among which, property law was amended only twice (6th amendment, October 4, 1984, 10th amendment, December 29, 2001, 17th amendment, December 21, 2007), and family law was amended 9 times (1st amendment, December 29, 1962, 5th amendment, December 31, 1977, 7th amendment, January 13, 1990, 11th amendment, January 14, 2002, 12th amendment, March 31, 2005, 14th amendment, December 29, 2005, 16th amendment, December 21, 2007, 17th amendment, May 8, 2009, 18th amendment, March 7, 2011, 19th amendment, May 19, 2011).

To meet the increasing needs to narrow the gap between the Civil Act and the real world in rapid transition from the industrial society to the information society, the government established ad-hoc drafting committees from time to time to revise the Act. The most recent amendment to the Civil Act is posted in a separate article.