한국의 헤이그국제사법회의 가입 20주년을 기념하여: 회고, 현상과 전망

Conference”) was first convened in 1893 to work for the progressive unification of the rules of private international law and later has been transformed into a standing organization. 2017 marks the 20th anniversary of Korea’s membership of the Hague Conference. In order to commemorate it, the Hague Conference, together with the Ministry of Justice and the Korean Association of Private International Law, has organized “HCCH Asia Pacific Week 2017” conferences from July 3 to 6 of 2017 in Seoul. At present, among the numerous conventions adopted by the Hague Conference (“Hague Conventions”), Korea is a state party to the following four conventions: ① the Service Convention of 1965, ② the Apostille Convention of 1961, ③ the Evidence Convention of 1970, and ④ the Child Abduction Convention of 1980. The Child Abduction Convention is a first for Korea in many aspects. It is the first Hague Convention for Korea on family law matters and issues related to applicable law. It is also the only Hague Convention for which Korea has enacted an implementation act at the time of accession. Korea has made remarkable progress since becoming a member of the Hague Conference in 1997 in that it has acceded to four Hague Conventions and come to handle various international tasks under those conventions. However, there is much room for further improvement. The fact that Korea has not yet ratified the Adoption Convention is most unfortunate. We should properly utilize the Hague Conference as the “The World Organisation for Cross-border Co-operation in Civil and Commercial Matters”. In Korea, lawyers tend to focus more on the interpretation of the current law and less on legislation. Many of them are particularly indifferent to the international efforts for the unification of laws and do not even realize the necessity of these efforts. However, such attitude should be changed. It is also very regrettable that the Korean society has not been able to cultivate many experts, especially expert researchers, on private international law for the past 20 years. This article deals with the following issues: the major contents of the Hague Conventions to which Korea has acceded and the measures taken by Korea at the time of accession (Chapter Ⅱ), the influences the Hague Conventions had on Korea’s legislation of private international law (Chapter Ⅲ), the Hague Conventions Korea should consider acceding to in the future (Chapter Ⅳ) (in this Chapter, the author makes a brief introduction to the Adoption Convention, the Choice of Court Convention, the Child Protection Convention, the Child Support Convention, the Adult Protection Convention, the Securities Convention and the Trust Convention), the future task of Korea with respect to the Hague Conference (Chapter Ⅴ), the author’s personal experiences, memories, and thoughts (Chapter Ⅵ), and concluding remarks (Chapter Ⅶ). At the end of the paper, the author briefly examines, as a related matter, the Supreme Court of Korea’s plan to establish the so-called “IP Hub Court” in Korea. Before delving into the discussion on the main topics, the author briefly touches upon the concept and scope of private international law.