조선시대 이후 한국의 이혼제도에 대한 일고찰 —이혼원인과 양성평등을 중심으로—

Abstract

A Wife in the Chosun Dynasty Yang-Ban(兩班) Society doesn't have the right of divorce claim and is unilaterally forced to be dutiful to husband's parents and faithful to her husband on the grounds of Daemyeongryul(大明律) and Confucian Culture. Through the customs produced by Japan, the introduction of civil code in Japan and the change of customs in Chosun during the Japanese colonial period, a divorce system by agreement is introduced and the judicial divorce system is also adopted though unequal, a wife has the right of divorce claim to a husband or a state with abuse, insult and adultery. By the introduction of Korean civil code, that regulates the same right of divorce claim with the same causes in gender equality, the liberty of divorce is guaranteed equally in gender equality. Although the same right of divorce claim in gender equality doesn't function equally in quality because of the gender inequality in marriage and childcare system, the culture that tolerates concubinage, and the economical inequality between men and women as revisions of family law shows, the traditional divorce by husbands because of wives' adultery and disobedience to parents reduces considerably. The voice of having to shifting from liability divorce system to no-fault divorce system is often heard because women are not any more victims and the weak because of the improvement of the women's state. But considering that women are still the weak because economic activity rates of women is below 50% and the main causes of the judicial divorce are assault and adultery, the same divorce claim between women and men doesn't function samely in many respects.