제주민의 재산상속 소송과 書證 -1663년 제주목 決訟立案을 중심으로

Abstract

This article examines 1663 kyŏlsong iban(決訟立案) of Che-ju Mok, characterizing the litigation of Chosŏn Dynasty Iban of 1663. The litigation was the civil action between the first-son’s descendents and the second-son’s ones related to the ownership of bi(婢) Pokt’ae born to bi Tagi who belonged to pongsajo(奉祀條), or ancestral-rites expense, of hahoe mungi(和會文記), or document articulating the inheritance of one deceased parent’s property based upon his/her children’s complete agreement. In the course of the oral proceeding, the defendant, the first-son’s descendents, tried to uphold a cause by arguing that the plaintiff greedy for the property did harm to the concord among brethren. On the other hand, complainant, the second-son’s descendents focused upon kago mun’gi(可考文記), or evidential document. This shows that there was a difference in their strategy for the litigation. The official in charge of the litigation, based upon their evidential documents rather than their arguments, adjudicated the dispute in the favor of the plaintiff. His logical inference in the adjudgment centered upon the evidential documents. This means that the progression of litigation in the Chosŏn period was based upon evidential documents, a characteristic of the litigation progression in the period. The characteristic was confirmed in the mun’gi chŏnjun(文記傳準). The mun’gi chŏnjun meant one of the litigation procedures in which defender and plaintiff verified his counterpart’s documentary evidences litigants submitted to the court in order to conform the authenticity of the documents and their competence of evidence. Also the mun’gi chŏnjun meant the document produced as a result of the verification which was composed of three parts: the first part was the official transcript of verified documentary evidences; the second one was the space for both complainant and defendant to write a letter of ‘paek(白)’ and also to sign the document; and the last one, the kwansŏ tapin(官署踏印) in which the official in charge of the litigation write a letter of official title, signed his own autograph and stamped the document with an official seal. The mun’gi chŏnjun was the first step for the plaintiff and the defendant to conform the authenticity of evidential documents and their competences of evidence, and also major procedure which characterized the litigation process based upon evidential documents as well as the legal subjectivity of those concerned, viz. complainant and defendant. The mun’gi chŏnjun found in Cheju Island was not the characteristic peculiarity of the litigation conformed only at the Island but one of basic litigation procedures followed around the country in the Chosŏn period.