조부모와 계부모 기타 친족의 면접교섭권

Visitation Rights of Grandparent, Step-parent and Other Relatives: Through Interpretation or Legislation?

Every person has a right to contact and hold a social intercourse with whom he/she want to. Especially a right to access and communicate with a member of family is guaranteed by the Constitution. But it is not easy to continue the relationship when the family is broken up on divorce or death. Ironically it is the very and urgent time that children need an intimate relationship, so that visitation of grandparents, step-parents, brothers and sisters and other relatives is useful for the children who are in emotionally vulnerable states due to a loss of parents. Nevertheless, the Korean Civil Law does not have any provisions on the visitation right of the person other than parents. Some argue the visitation rights of grandparent etc. can be recognized by the interpretation of the existing provisions, but such a theory is inevitable to face a limitation because it results to infringe the parental rights. Therefore I suggest a new legislation about visitation rights of grandparent etc. should be enacted, and review some relevant issues in this article, for example, who can allege the rights, under what requisition the rights are established and when it should be excluded or limited.