Sungkyunkwan and Yurim: "Is the incest standard set at fourth-degree relatives?... An act of family destruction"

Ministry of Justice Considers Easing Consanguineous Marriage Criteria
"Disintegration of Human Ethics... Family Trees and Surnames Will Collapse"

The Ministry of Justice is reportedly considering reducing the scope of prohibited marriages between relatives (consanguineous marriages) from within the eighth degree of kinship to within the fourth degree, prompting strong opposition from Sungkyunkwan University and the Confucian community.

On the 27th, Yonhap News reported that a research service report recently commissioned by the Ministry of Justice to review the scope of prohibited consanguineous marriages proposed reducing the prohibition from within the eighth degree of kinship to within the fourth degree. If the law is amended, marriage with relatives within the fifth degree would become possible.

(This photo is not directly related to the article.) [Photo by Yonhap News]

Professor Hyun So-hye of Sungkyunkwan University Law School, who was commissioned by the government to conduct the research, suggested that considering the fact that the majority of the public still perceives relatives up to the sixth degree as close kin, a gradual reduction of the prohibition scope from within the eighth degree to the sixth degree, and then to the fourth degree, could be considered.

Regarding this proposal, Professor Hyun stated, “This is because the cases of maintaining familial bonds with relatives beyond the fifth degree have significantly decreased,” but added a caveat that “the gradual reduction plan may raise constitutional controversy.”

The current Civil Code stipulates that ▲ relatives within the eighth degree of kinship are prohibited from marrying (Article 809, Paragraph 1) and ▲ if such a marriage occurs, it is null and void (Article 815, Item 2). However, on October 27, 2022, the Constitutional Court ruled by a 5 to 4 decision that the prohibition of marriage within the eighth degree (Paragraph 1) is constitutional, but declared the clause stating that such marriages are null and void (Article 809, Paragraph 2) unconstitutional. The Ministry of Justice’s review of reducing the scope of prohibited consanguineous marriages is a follow-up measure to this ruling.

This discussion by the Ministry of Justice began when Mr. A and Ms. B, who returned from the United States in 2016, registered their marriage. Ms. B filed a lawsuit claiming the marriage was invalid because she and Mr. A were related within the sixth degree. After the first and second trial courts ruled the marriage invalid, Mr. A, who did not accept the decision, filed a constitutional complaint.

Choi Jong-su, President of Sungkyunkwan [Photo by Sungkyunkwan/ Yonhap News]

Upon learning of this, Sungkyunkwan University urged, “Immediately stop actions that destroy the family.” In a statement on the 27th, Sungkyunkwan University, the Sungkyunkwan Confucian Association Headquarters, and the nationwide Confucian community said, “After abolishing the prohibition on marriage between people of the same surname and clan, now the government is pushing for a legal amendment to allow marriage between blood relatives and in-laws, which is truly shocking,” and added, “The long-standing societal norm regarding consanguineous marriage in our country should not be hastily changed.”

Sungkyunkwan University argued, “Radical changes to the culture of marriage will inevitably lead to family disintegration and moral collapse,” and warned, “Human ethics will collapse, genealogies will be ruined, and surnames themselves will become meaningless.”

They further stated, “Our nationwide Confucian community condemns this atrocity and will do everything in its power to stop it,” emphasizing, “The Ministry of Justice must immediately halt the commissioned research and stop destroying families.”