고령화 사회와 배우자 상속분에 관한 단상

Our country has entered aging society now that age over 65 is over 7% of overall population in 2000. Under these circumstances, it becomes a big social issue that the living expenses of surviving spouse are increased upon the other spouse’s decease. So, the Civil Law Revision Committee prepared a draft of the Inheritance Law Revision and submitted it to the Ministry of Justice. It seems appropriate that the draft of the Revision improved a prior distribution right to a surviving spouse. But the draft of the Revision has been criticized for the problems that the extent of priority portion was not specified, and the dispute among inheritors can be increased. Considering the court recognizes a housewife’s contribution to the extent of 30% to 50% in general, it seems reasonable that the court recognizes contribution of surviving spouse with respect to division of properties in the case that the marriage is dissolute by the decease of one spouse. Therefore, this study is purposed to apply a criterion that the spouse receives 30% of the inheritance as a Prior Inheritance portion in the case that the marriage lasts at least 20 years.