친일재산 환수의 쟁점과 의의

Soon after the estabalishment of South Korea in 1948, the National Assembly made an effort to sanction the collaborationists who facilitated the Japanese colonization of Korea in the early 20th century. But the effort was frustrated by the then President Syngman Rhee. More than 60 years later, in the mid 2000’s, the National Assembly passed two statutes which provided private law rules whereby the assets of collaborationists (or their successors) which had been acquired by virtue of their collaboration with the Japanese colonial rulers shall be deemed to belong to the State. The enactment of these stautory measures was due largely to the fact that beginning from the late 1990’s, increasing number of lawsuits were brought by the collaborationists (or their successors) to recover their land from the current owners on record. Their claims were based on the records of Ownership Survey conducted by the Japanese colonial government in the early 20th century. The attempt to unsettle and deny the ownership of current registerd owners on the basis of the ownership records of colonial past became highly controversial issues. The two statutes enacted in the mid 2000’s aim to put an end to such attempt of the collaborationists. Most of the collaborationists (or their successors) whose land has been declared to belong to the State by virtue of these statutes challenged the decision in the administrative court or in the Constitutional Court. But the courts largely rejected their appeal, thus affirming the constitutionality and legality of these statutes and the measures taken to sanction collaborationists. This article also offers brief discussion on a couple of private law issues relating to these statutes: (i) whether the entry of ownership in accordance with the Ownership Survey shall be deemed to be a method of ‘acquiring’ the land; and (ii) the meaning and scope of ‘third party’ in Article 3(1) of the Statute relating to the State Ownership of the Assets of the Japanese Collaborationists.