부양의무 해태와 상속결격사유 확대에 관한 입법론

Family law, dealing with relatives and inheritance, has ben continuously revisedacording to the changes of the times, but there are cases in which it does not suficientlyreflect the changing reality. In particular, the rules of statutory bar to inheritance havenot changed substantialy since the first Korean Civil Act was enacted in 1960. In recentcases, parents who did not fulfil their obligations to suport their children receivedcompensation, insurance, and survivors' pensions from the death of their children. Soinjustice underlying these cases draw some national concern. Even though parents have not fulfiled their duty to suport, the problem of receivingeconomic benefits from the death of their children is not ours alone, and countriesaround the world are also enacting legislation to resolve the problem. The first and mostdirect solution is to include the non-suport as a statutory bar to inheritance, and 23states in the United States and Uniform Probate Code are taking such a positon. Second,there is a solution like Japan in which a wil or a family court's ruling is required todeprive statutory secured portion of heirs. In this paper, through comparison with the US legislation, it was concluded thatamong the misconducts of the heirs, child abandonment or child abuse was misconductsthat should be relatively highly critcized and neded to be included in the statutory barto inheritance. On the other hand, while slayer statute has a strong nature of sanctionsby public policy, child abandonment must consider public policy as wel as the intentof the heir. Therefore, in drafting amendment, it is necesary to consider alowing explicitforgivenes or restoring the inheritabilty of parents who resumed suport.