[Viewpoint] Do You Know the "Guidelines for Family Rites"?

Regulations Linger Like Ghosts, Yet New Ones Keep Coming
Regulatory Reform Must Be Driven by the Private Sector
Key to Unlocking Growth Potential

Youngjoo Cho, Managing Editor of Political and Social Affairs and Chief of Social Department

"At weddings, the groom enters first, followed by the bride, and then the bride and groom bow to each other."

"The chief mourner should be the spouse or the eldest son. Unless there are unavoidable circumstances, the funeral should be held on the third day after death."

Is there a law in South Korea that prescribes such customs? In fact, there is. The law recommends that the groom enters first at weddings. Wedding gifts should be modest and practical, and the pre-wedding gifts should only be sent to the parents of the couple. The law also stipulates who should be the chief mourner at funerals. Mourning attire should be white if it is hanbok, and black if it is a suit. If you have not followed these rules, you have violated the law.

This is about the "Guidelines for Sound Family Ceremonies," which are stipulated by Presidential Decree. The guidelines are specified to regulate the content, dissemination, and implementation of sound family ceremonies in accordance with Article 5, Paragraph 4 of the "Act on the Establishment and Support of Sound Family Ceremonies." The last revision was on January 5, 2021. The law defines "family ceremonies" as including coming-of-age ceremonies, weddings, funerals, ancestral rites, and 60th birthday celebrations conducted as family rituals.

I asked people around me, "Do you know about the Guidelines for Family Ceremonies?" The answers were largely the same. The middle-aged and older people responded, "That still exists?" while younger people asked, "What is that?" Their puzzled expressions were identical.

The Guidelines for Family Ceremonies were implemented in January 1969 when the "Act on the Guidelines for Family Ceremonies" was promulgated. It was a recommendatory and advisory law, not enforced or regulated. However, in June 1973, when the "Guidelines for Family Ceremonies" and the "Act on Family Ceremonies" came into effect, penalty provisions were introduced to legally mandate family ceremonies. This was an attempt to eliminate the ostentatious and wasteful customs rooted in Confucian tradition during a time of poverty. In 1999, the law was revised again as the "Guidelines for Sound Family Ceremonies," which no longer included penalties.

The Guidelines for Family Ceremonies have already outlived their legal significance. Regulations created 56 years ago still linger like ghosts. Our legal system is overflowing with such regulations. Once created, regulations are rarely abolished. Meanwhile, new regulations are constantly being produced. Many of the laws enacted by the National Assembly and the government are of this nature.

In the last week of August, 205 bills were submitted to the National Assembly. Of these, 67 bills, or 32.7%, were classified as regulatory bills. According to statistics compiled by the Good Regulation Citizens' Forum, a total of 11,532 bills were submitted during the 65 weeks since the 22nd National Assembly convened, and 3,626 of them were regulatory bills. On average, 177 bills were submitted each week, and 56 of them introduced new regulations.

Successive administrations have declared that the President would eradicate regulations. Regulatory reform, which began during the Kim Youngsam administration, was promoted under slogans such as "removing telephone poles," "removing thorns under the fingernails," and "regulatory sandbox" in subsequent governments. The most important task in achieving these goals is to switch to a negative-list system for regulations-specifying only what is prohibited and allowing everything else. However, every time, regulatory reform was merely for show, with officials watching the President's reaction, and then quietly forgotten.

For regulatory reform to succeed, an independent, private-sector-led regulatory reform body is needed. Regulatory experts should be tasked with identifying and eliminating bad regulations one by one. Newly created regulations must be reviewed daily to assess their impact on the lives of citizens and the economy. Regulations with significant negative effects should be reported to the President and the Speaker of the National Assembly to prevent them from being codified into law. Only then can we take a step closer to true regulatory reform. I want to tell President Lee Jaemyung that regulatory reform is the key to raising our potential growth rate.