일반소멸시효의 기산점 판단법리의 기원 ― Boissonade 민법초안부터 메이지민법 제정까지 ― = The Origin of the Interpretation that Determines the Commencement of Extinctive Prescription ― Draft Civil Code of Boissonade and Commencement of Extinctive Prescription ―

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

In the Boissonade draft of the Civil Code, the extinctive prescription period of 30 years or the 20-year period of the Meiji Civil Code has been acknowledged to consider the circumstances where a creditor cannot exercise his/her rights. Finally, the current Japanese Civil Law reduced the period of extinctive prescription to 10 years.
The Korean and Japanese orthodox and precedents, consider the 10-year extinctive prescription period as the normal extinctive prescription period, and regard the commencement of extinctive prescription as ‘when the rights can be exercised’.
However, in consideration of the Boissonade draft of Civil Code and the Meiji draft of Civil Code, as discussed in this paper, the incentive to strictly interpret ‘when the rights can be exercised’ could be removed by shortening the term of extinctive prescription to 10 years.
In short, the 10-year extinctive prescription period for creditor rights in general is a short-term extinctive prescription period that is not sufficiently considered for the possibility of a de facto failure (not at least a long-term extinctive prescription period).
Therefore, Korean orthodox and precedents, which judge the commencement of extinctive prescription only as a legal obstacles, should be reconsidered.