美國 家庭法院의 現況과 改善 論議

The Current State and the Reform Movement of the American Family Court

This paper reviews the current state and the reform movement of the American family court. The family court serves various functions. Traditionally, divorce was the most important matter in the family court. As the no-fault divorce system was adopted in all jurisdictions of America, the focus was shifted from divorce itself to the division of the property, alimony and protecting the best interest of the child. Recently, dealing with the domestic violence and child abuse became other important function of the family courts. Because of the heavy workload, alternative dispute resolution(ADR) such as arbitration and mediation is widely used in the practice of the family courts. But it is pointed out that the mediation process is structurally unfavorable to the weak party. There is some criticism about the present state of the family court. According to it, judges and other personnel of the family court are poorly specialized and the decisions are often tainted by the gender bias and inconsistent. Some argue the specialized divorce court is the answer to the problem, while others assert that unified family court, which has comprehensive jurisdiction over the family law matters with specialized judges and other personnel, is the best solution. The lesson from the above discussion can be summarized as following. Firstly, the American family court has more comprehensive power than the Korean family court. Secondly, the use of ADR in family law matters is much encouraged in Korea. But the problem of ADR is not well recognized. Thirdly, the specialization of the judges and other personnel is the most important factor for the success of the family court.