Ministry of Justice: "Reducing the Range of Consanguineous Marriage to Within Four Degrees... Direction Not Yet Decided"

The Ministry of Justice has stepped in to clarify that "no revision direction has been decided yet" amid controversy over the government's consideration to reduce the prohibited range of marriage between relatives from within the 8th degree to within the 4th degree.

Ministry of Justice, Government Gwacheon Complex.
Photo by Kwak Minjae

On the 28th, the Ministry of Justice stated, "We are carefully reviewing the issue by conducting expert research on the legislation of various countries for a basic investigation into the prohibition of marriage between relatives, and no revision direction has been decided by the Ministry of Justice yet."

The current Civil Code stipulates that ▲blood relatives within the 8th degree are prohibited from marrying (Article 809, Paragraph 1) and ▲if married, the marriage is null and void (Article 815, Item 2).

However, on October 27, 2022, the Constitutional Court ruled that Article 815, Item 2 of the Civil Code, which uniformly invalidates marriages between blood relatives within the 8th degree, infringes on the freedom of marriage and declared it unconstitutional. After the Constitutional Court ordered the revision of the provision by December 31 of this year, the Ministry of Justice appears to have taken follow-up measures.

A Ministry of Justice official stated, "We plan to prepare a revision bill that reflects changes in the times and public sentiment through careful review via discussions of the Special Committee on Family Law and sufficient social debate."

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