한국 친족상속법의 제·개정에서 여성개인의 의미- 개인의 자유와 자율성의 관점에서 -

In the western history a private individual was defined as a human being after beginning of modern times who was rid of the subjugation of the community and could make his own decision autonomically. However, a woman did not belong to one who has her own autonomy. Also in the East Asian countries which had influenced by the Confucian culture people have understood the private individual as a being who could be defined only through the relation with others. In Korean traditional society the individuals had just their meaning as the member of family community of male bloody line established by the clan rule system(so called“Jong-beob”) and women did not have any autonomous status in that community. The Korean Law of Family and Succession (the following : KLFS) in 1958 was legislated on the basis of the principles for preserving this abstract family community composed with male bloody line. For this reason feminist activists criticized related provisions in the KLFS from the perspective of gender equality guaranteed by the Korean Constitutional Law. As a result many provisions in the KLFS have revised reflecting gender equality. However, what was the meaning of gender equality in the stage of their revision was not precisely examined. Furthermore, even though the Korean value has been changed into focusing on individual`s freedom and happiness compared with the prosperity of family community itself, it was not often discussed how the provisions of the KLFS should be understood from the perspective of female individuals’s freedom and autonomy. For this reason, this paper dealt with the meaning of gender equality and female individual’s freedom in the course of legislating and revising the KLFS.