한국 상속법상 배우자 상속분의 연혁과 발전 -일본의 상속분 개정 논의와의 비교-

The regulations on the inheritance of the Korean Civil Law, which has been in effect since 1960, are prescribed in the inheritance of Chapter 5. In the pre-1960 era, the customs of the time became an important standard of discipline, because the provisions on civil ability, relatives, and inheritance were not applied to Koreans, and the matter was based on the customs of the Koreans. Therefore, it is from the civil law enacted in 1960 that the discipline of the civil law concerning the inheritance was actually improved. In recent years, a detailed examination of the comparative legal position of our inheritance law has been conducted. In conclusion, the evaluation of the Korean civil law act as the achievement of the comparative law work can be applied to the inheritance of Chapter 5. This characteristic of the Korean Civil Code is due to the influence of the inheritance law in Japan, and it is also why the inheritance law of Korea became similar to the French civil law in its basic structure. However, since the Korean Civil Law was enacted in 1960, the inheritance rule was changed by the amendment of the civil law in 1977 and 1990, and the current civil law is based on the revision in 2005. Thus, the inheritance law of Korea has undergone various changes in order to accommodate the demands of the times and values ​​of the constitutional spirit at that time. Therefore, understanding this process can be a clue that we will be able to better grasp the various improvements in relation to the amendment of our inheritance law. In this paper, I review the history of inheritance in the Korean inheritance law, and describe the contents of the current legislation, future improvements and issues on the basis of it. The amendments to the inheritance law in the Korean Inheritance Act recently began to be discussed again in 2006 and 2014. However, most of the discussions focus on upward of spouse inheritance, and tend to concentrate on the viewpoint of upward method of inheritance. However, in the recent revision of the inheritance law, it seems that there is a lack of consciousness about the meaning and function of the inheritance system itself and why the inheritance of the spouse should be discussed at this point as well as the inheritance of the spouse. In conclusion, the current discussion on inheritance law should be based on a review of the grounds and meaning of inheritance in Korean Civil Law, and a holistic view of its value and function. In this sense, the importance of general discussion was pointed out in the revision process of the Japanese inheritance law, and the discussion of revision itself is a lesson in the discussion of our revision in that it has taken various issues based on a comprehensive review of such inheritance law.