법률행위로 인한 관습법상 법정지상권 폐지와 법정임대차 도입- 민법 개정안을 중심으로 -

The abolition of the customary superficies and the adoption of thestatutory lease– A study on the Draft of the Civil Code Amendment –Kwon, YoungjoonThe Korean Civil Code (hereinafter “KCC”), which was first enactedback in 1960, is a fundamental norm governing legal relationships amongprivate entities. Since the enactment of the KCC, Korean society hasexperienced drastic changes in various aspects. However, the KCC hasnever been comprehensively amended up to now. Against this backdrop,there has been a constant call for the comprehensive amendment of theKCC. In response, the Ministry of Justice has carried out an ambitiouslegal project of amending the KCC since 2009. As of January 2014, thefinal amendment draft is about to be completed. This article aims toaddress major changes envisaged in the draft specifically concerning theabolition of the customary superficies. Customary superficies, according to the legal precedents, endows abuilding owner the right of superficies even without agreement with aland owner or relevant legal provisions creating such superficies undercertain conditions. The main function of this customary right is to protectpublic interest inherent in the existence of a building. When the ownershipof land and the building thereon, once attributed to the same owner,belong to different owners due to whatever legal reasons including sale orpublic auction, the building owner can claim the right of customarysuperficies against the land owner so long as there is no contract to teardown the building. This is specific legal device to protect building owner권영준 : 법률행위로 인한 관습법상 법정지상권 폐지와 법정임대차 도입 41in a jurisdiction where the ownership of land and a building can beseparated. The customary superficies was first acknowledged in 1916 by ChosunHigh Court. Since then, there has been much debate over whether or notsuch custom had existed in Korea. In particular, there has been heavycriticism on conferring too strong right to a building owner in case of salewhen she could have made a contract with a land owner to securerelevant right to use land. This led to the current draft, which abolishesthe customary superficies in case of sale, while converting the customarysuperficies in case of public auction into legal superficies by creatingadditional provisions to that effect. In the case, the statutory lease contractwill be acknowledged for 10 years after the ownership over land and abuilding belong to different owners. This provides interim protection for abuilding owner, but not as formidable as customary superficies. It remains to be seen whether or not this draft will finally be enactedin the near future. Yet, the draft itself is certainly worthy of beingreviewed from an academic point of view even before its enactment.