The Development of Family Law in Republic of Korea (1988-2016): the Evolution of Women’s Rights to Possessions

This paper explores the process of development of Family Law in Republic of Korea during the period from 1988 to 2016 mainly covering the scope of how women received their rights and what they did for it. Present work is aimed to analyze what changes were brought to the Family Law in Korea during the first two amendments, 1961 and 1977. Then it is found out what amendments were taken during reforms in 1989 and 2005 and what changes they brought. The work also was aimed to explore the modern state and norms of Korean Family Law and compare it with the norm of International law. Within the topic, works of several authors were examined and analyzed. Articles and monographies are varied on the point of the background of the process of Law evolution in Korea and how actually women received their rights. While Yang (2003, 2006, 2008, and 2013) particularly pays attention to the evolution of legal norms throughout the history, Nam (2010) and Shin (2008) explore features of women’s organizations that were opened in order to fight for women rights and freedom within the Family Law. However, little studies are oriented on the change of women rights within Family Law. This work is aimed to find out how the legal status of women has changed. We will perform secondary data collection and use content analysis in collecting and analyzing the data. The results of the paper may reveal features of formation of the Family Law and become a theoretical base for further research.