보증인 보호를 위한 특별법에 관한 검토

The Korean Congress has passed "An Special Act on the Protection of Guarantors" in 2008. The purpose of this Act is to contribute to the solid establishment of a credit society by providing for special cases to the Civil Law with regard to guarantees to protect guarantors who provide guaranties without consideration but only out of courtesy from suffering economic and mental harm and to establish reasonable practices for contract on guaranty for pecuniary obligation. The above act only applies to a guarantor who provides guaranties without consideration. According to the Act, the contract of guaranty has to be on writing and the range of its obligation should be specified. Furthermore, if the creditor is an bank or the similar institute, then the Act requires such creditor to provide an information about the debtor's credit status to a guarantor. This article is to examine and criticize the contents of the Act through comparing it with the 2004's the amendment draft of Civil Law because the Act shares the similar features of the amendment draft. Meanwhile, this paper would introduce the relevant law in other countries such as Japan, Germany, and Switzerland in order to analyze the main provisions on the Act.