Religion Related Lawsuits of Korea - Focusing on the Legal Status of Religious Organizations and their Divisions

Abstract

The Presbyterian Church went through several denominational divisions from 1950 to 1960. The denominational division has caused problems concerning local church property. Therefore, the theory of collective ownership was to support the legal division of the congregation. However, church divisions have been related to dense patterns of wealth and status of the pastor rather than doctrinal issues recently. This criterion referred to as 'a collective ownership'( Chong-yoo ) of the members during the division made the resolution of church property dispute almost impossible, mainly because of the reasons that the rapidly growing numbers of church and their wealth. In 2004, the Supreme Court changed the position so that the church property belongs to the two-thirds of the church members with the decision of more than two-thirds of the church membership during the withdrawal from the denomination("2006 Decision"). The 2006 Decision has been a tool for resolution of church disputes and a comprehensive prescription for the local church by establishing a judicial doctrine on many issues which were discussed, including the case law and the legal nature of the church. However, the 2006 Decision's criterion of two-thirds with the majority vote proved to be an unrealistic criterion, mainly because of the reason that the most Korean churches do not keep any book of precise membership. Therefore, there are no means to prove the total number of church members required to win the case. In particular, the case of the Kwangsung Presbyterian Church is a good example. The Supreme Court dismissed the majority's allegation of two-thirds with the majority vote in the general meeting of the church members, based on the failure of submitting the evidence of the precise total number of church members. In addition to it, the Supreme Court gave the Kwangsung Church membership to people who left the denomination, because withdrawal from the Kwangsung Church was distinguished from the denomination withdrawal. This ruling induced a prolonged dispute of Kwangsung Church for more than ten years. The church property should be divided in proportion to the number of the congregation to continue the life of faith with the same doctrinal beliefs when the church splits. Although this suggestion based on the theory of co-ownership has a theoretical problem, in my opinion, it is the most realistic way to resolve church property disputes respecting the church as a belief community. As sharing of the church property consists of a difficult and complicated procedure, many churches with disputes are trying to solve the problem of the church property by calculating a monetary amount in proportion over the actual number of the members instead of leaving the church.