프랑스법상 조부모의 방문권(droit de visite)

Abstract

In modern society, family structure is changing in various ways, such as family dissolution or expansion of household members. In other words, child support has been done by a more variety of individuals, such as grandparents and a third party, as the method of child support has changed due to aging society, rising social participation of women, and increasing divorce or remarriage. Nevertheless, the legal relationship between grandparents and grandchildren hardly leads to any special legal relationship, except for child support obligation and heirship. However, there are almost no civil code provisions on marriage-based nuclear family that pertain to relatives, not to mention grandparents, nor any legal regulations or suggestions on the relationship between grandparents and grandchildren. However, since family structure is changing in the modern society, as mentioned previously, family matters in the civil code need to be changed. Therefore, this study is aimed at exploring the discussion on the French law regarding visitation rights of grandparents for grandchildren. In Article 371 Section 4 of French Civil Code, visitation rights of grandparents are specified as an express provision, partly because there have been suggestions and discussion on legal regulations for visitation rights of grandparents for grandchildren for quite a while. In fact, a series of family law has been revised in large scale in French legal system since the early 20th century and that's when the visitation rights of grandparents were specified. The main purpose of this study is to review the direction of expansion and revision of visitation rights scope in Korea by exploring the relevant discussion in France until the visitation rights of grandparents were legalized. Even though Korea and France have different family values​and family structures from each other, I believe that reviewing how a foreign law was established and developed, based on common perceptions toward changing family structure, familial relationship and affection in modern society, could be used as useful data for suggesting an universal direction on relevant legislation.