가정법원의 문제점과 개선방안

The Present Situations and Problems of the Family Court and Proposal of Policies for Change

Recently our society has been experiencing situations like sudden hike in the divorce rates, decline in the birthrates, violence in the families, all of which have contributed to the climax in the crisis of "family breakup", triggering the amendment of the laws in the direction of the government looking after family problems and resolution of the problems. At the same time, Family Court is demanded not only for its traditional ability, to solve problems by trials, but also to look after the welfare of children and women who are relatively in the weaker position, mediation and reconciliation to solve disputes, and welfare services related to families. However, our Family court and family trial systems do not seem to reflect all these needs. The following are the problems of the Family Court. (1) Family Courts are only installed in large cities such as Seoul, therefore not providing equal justice services to citizens in other areas. (2) Specialties such as judicial and examiners are lacking substantially in number. (3) In operation of the family trial, it takes a long time to wait for a trial but there aren’t any sincere mediations or judgements. (4) Divorce by agreement systems were improved, but there is a lack of programs such as making both parents agree on child caring in the process of divorce and people in charge. (5) In a divorce, trials have unnecessary problems that deal with a lot of emotions because of fault-based divorce, and lack of consideration for support in separationof properties. (6) The children of divorced families may not receive fostering expenses during the trial, and even after the trial they experience difficulties since the process of receiving it are very complicated. To solve these kinds of problems I suggest these solutions. (1) Establishment of Family Courts all over the country, (2) facility improvement of Family Courts, (3) increase the number of judges and examiners, (4) make mediation more effective and specialized, (5) quick dealing with the cases and trials considering the unique characteristics of family trials, (6) protecting women and children who are in a relatively lower position in things such as separation of properties and fostering expenses, (7) In addition, counseling facilities run by the executive branch and civilians, social welfare service centers, children welfare service centers, protection centers for victims from violence in families, and the Family Court isn’t well related right now, but connecting and using them systematically will maximize the effect even with a small budget. Looking at a long term, there needs fundamental solutions such as reforming family courts and the civil court by separating them as having a different organization and a system of personal management, strengthen the relations with the executive branch, and boldly increase the welfare budget. The welfare needed for solving problems related to family isn’t a problem to be just left entirely to the Family Court but something that needs to be solved by the government by actively intensifying welfare services.