자녀의 성과 본에 대한 연구

A Study on Child’s Surname and Bon - Especially in Case of Multi-culture Family -

Since our Civil Code adopts ‘principle of paternity of surname’ as a default, there is a possibility that a child of a multi-cultural family with a foreign father inherits the father’s alien last name. It may be problematic if the child feels foreign in Korea as a consequence. Thus, in Civil Code and ‘Established Rule on The Registration, etc of Family Relationship’ No.414, the option to inherit the surname and ‘bon(the birthplace of one's first ancestor)’ of the mother is exceptively allowed, given that the father of the child is a foreigner. However, because this exceptional permission is limitedly affecting only the pertinent child, any following siblings of the child who are born after the foreign father has naturalized to gain Korean nationality will have to succeed the Korean surname and bon of the father. Therefore, the principle of giving the same last name to siblings is violated. In order to resolve the problems stated above, we need to revise ‘Established Rule on The Registration, etc of Family Relationship’ No.414 1) to allow a child to inherit mother’s last name and bon at the time of his/her birth registration in an occasion when the child’s father was once a foreigner as well as when the child’s father is currently a foreigner, and 2) to expand the effect of the decision to give a child mother’s last name at the time of birth registration when the father is/was a foreigner to all the following siblings after the pertinent child so that unwanted discordant of surname and bon among siblings can be prevented. We do not consider the Civil Code principal that a consent must be made at the time of marriage registration in order to give mother’s surname and bon to a child is rational. Also, it is questionable whether siblings’ last names must correspond. Therefore, we propose a revision to, without differentiating Korean and foreign individuals, ① allow all children to freely choose and inherit either father or mother’s surname and bon at the time of birth registration, ② let such choices have a limited effect on the pertinent child with the birth registration in order to renounce the principle of same surname for all one’s children and allow siblings to individually inherit any one of their father and mother’s surname and bon and ③ make a principle that a general adopted son whom we consider to be son in legal implication obtains the surname and bon of either one of the foster parents at the time of adoption.