유류분제도의 개선 방안 - 프랑스 유류분제도와의 비교를 중심으로 -

초록

The Constitutional Court’s 2024 ruling declaring the Civil Code provisions on the statutory reserve system unconstitutional mandated that the legislature enact corrective legislation by December 31, 2025. Although six bills were proposed after 2024, it was not until February 12, 2026, that Bill No. 2216589, the Partial Amendment to the Civil Code, finally passed the plenary session. Consequently, the amended Civil Code did not take effect until March 17, 2026 — well past the original deadline. In this article, drawing on France’s system of reserves and the discussions regarding its improvement, I have commented on the amendment of our statutory reserve system and proposed additional improvement measures. Although France’s legal system and culture are not identical to ours, the current consensus in both countries regarding the necessity and basis of our system is largely similar. Although measures such as separately recognizing a judgment on the forfeiture or reduction of the statutory reserve when a claim for its return is filed, or reducing the statutory reserve by considering the contribution of a beneficiary who has received a special bequest that infringes upon it, have been introduced in the revised Civil Code, it cannot be denied that there are still shortcomings. There is a need to reexamine the scope of beneficiaries entitled to a statutory reserve under Korean law, and to reach a social consensus on the introduction of a system for agreements regarding the prior waiver of claims for the return of the statutory reserve.

키워드