한정승인의 효과로서 발생하는 재산분리의 의미

The Meaning of Properties Separation Owing to Heir’s Limited Liability

In case of intestate succession, the deceased’s rights and obligations pass to her heir (§1005 Korean Civil Code [KCC]). It means that the heir must at first be liable for all debts inherited. For her protection the Korean Civil Code grants the possibility to limit her liability unto the inheritance (§1028 KCC: the so-called privilege of inventory). With making the inventory of inherited goods, she is now liable for the deceased’s debts only cum viribus hereditatis (§§1030 I, 1028, KCC). From this limited liability the separation of properties ist brought about, the inheritance and her proper. Here arises a question whether this separation has the same effect also in favour of the deceased’s creditors, i.d. whether they can bar the heir’s own creditors from executing against the inheritance. In this article, the author attempts to answer this question particularly form historical and comparative point of view. He describes the tradition of beneficium inventarii from Justinian to ius commune, its reception in the French Code civil and the break with it in the German BGB. Drawing some arguments from this background, it is submitted that the inheritance should first and foremost serve the satisfaction of the deceased’s creditors. Thus the properties separation benefits them with the result that the heir’s creditors are excluded from executing against it.