Legal Age of Adult Under Civil Law Will Be Lowered from 20 to 19

The legal age of adults under civil law will be lowered from the current 20 to 19 beginning in 2003, and the guarantor`s responsibility is likely to be exempted depending on the case.

Special division committee on the amendment bill to civil law (chairperson Lee Shi-Yoon) under the Ministry of Justice announced yesterday that it will finalize the draft of the amendment bill to civil law and will hold public hearings on December 13 and 14.

According to the draft, the ministry will lower the legal age of adult to 19, and will exempt teacher and supervisor from paying compensation if a minor under 19 is capable of taking responsibility when he or she violated law.

Following this, election law, which allows Koreans to vote at the age of 20, is likely to be affected by the change.

The draft also strengthens the protection of guarantor by allowing the guarantor to be exempted from taking responsibility when a creditor does not inform the guarantor the default of an obligation by a debtor.

The draft established an article that restrains the period of `core guarantee`, which guarantees the future debt without time limitation, to three years, and the period can be extended to two more years with agreement of the core guarantors.

According to the draft, a claim of removal of the building that crossed the borderline will be nullified if the claim does not make an objection within a year since the time of crossing the borderline. Also, when there is a flaw in a building constructed by a contract, the contract can be terminated.

Marriage brokerage or an individual will not receive commission under the name of remuneration for the success, and a buyer can directly claim for compensation to the branch where he or she bought the goods when there is a flaw in a purchased goods.

A Ministry of Justice official said, "We will collect opinions from various sectors of the society until next February, and plans to finalize the revised draft and to submit it to the National Assembly. The revised civil law will be enforced beginning in 2003."

Myoung-Gun Lee gun43@donga.com