양육비 확보제도 개선을 위한 비교법적 고찰

A study on the improvement of child support enforcement system

Today, wide spread of Individualism and Liberalism leads the increase of divorce rate in the world. The philosophy of freedom of marriage and divorce is partly responsible for that. At the same time, a lot of minors suffer from emotional and economic difficulties after their parents divorce. There is no exception in Korea. Rather, it can be said that Korea is a leading country in this shameful field. Divorce rate in Korea is increasing rapidly and it is going to be too late if we don t consider the family members after splitting up. The aim of this thesis is to think about the way of protecting the children in the painful situation after their parents divorce. Child support system should be one of the most important methods to protect them. It is focused to the area of child support enforcement system in this thesis. The legal philosophy on the child support in advanced countries has been changed from “for the parent s sake to “for the child s sake regarding the suffered people by the divorce. But it is regarded that the way of calculation of child support expense and support enforcement in Korean Civil Law is irrational and ineffective as compared with advanced countries. To ensure the rapid, rational and fair enforcement, the reform of child support system is inevitable. It is considered in this thesis that child support enforcement is a necessary and proper solution for the divorce victims sound growing up and physical, mental development. And also it is needed to reform the legislation and the system in Korea. Advanced countries offer parent s agreement on the child support and guidelines. Especially USA and UK intervene the discussion on child support between the parents by establishing an independent child support authority and by making a strong enforcement measure of child support. In addition, these countries provide economic assistance in the child care in spite of the basic principle that the main responsibility is on the parent. This thesis offers the rational way to enforce the child support cost summarizing as follows. First, it is needed to enact the parent s duty to pay for child care regardless of the existence of parental right as some parents tend not to pay for it because they don t have the parental right. Secondly, deciding the divorce, parents have to be forced to hand in related documents including the agreement who will bring up their children and pay for their living. The provision of duty to hear their child should be amended from one over 15 to one capable of deciding their way to live. Tax relief also should be admitted in order to promote voluntary child support payment. If the child support is not paid, the parent s money should be taken by force. Furthermore, the state can prepay for it and exercises the right to indemnity to parent. The state also can make the child support guideline resulting in the possible calculation on the side of parents. It is highly recommended to set up the authority to enforce child care payment.