Open Decision Ledger · Family & inheritance law
Intent to marry of a foreign spouse in a nullity suit
Supreme Court, Dec. 10, 2021, 2019Meu11584 (judgment)
Case name: 혼인의무효·이혼
Official text on the National Law Information Center
Question
When a Korean national sues a foreign spouse for nullity of marriage on the ground that there was no intention to marry, what matters must the family court weigh in deciding whether the foreign spouse had a genuine intention to marry when the marriage was reported?
Holding
The absence of an agreement to marry means that the parties had no meeting of minds to form the mental and physical union that society regards as married life, and the court must find it through its own investigation on reasonable and objective grounds. It must decide specifically whether the spouse lacked intent when the marriage was reported or lost the will to keep the marriage afterwards, and must not conclude that a ground for nullity exists by inferring from a few circumstances of married life alone that there was no intent when the marriage was reported. Where a Korean national sues a foreign spouse, the court must also weigh the procedures the spouse ordinarily completes abroad before married life begins, and the possibility that language barriers and differences in culture and custom give the marriage a different shape.
Summary of the holding, verbatim
일방 배우자가 상대방 배우자를 상대로 혼인신고 당시에 진정한 혼인의사가 없었다는 사유를 주장하면서 혼인무효 확인의 소를 제기하는 경우, 가정법원으로서는 직권조사를 통해 혼인의사의 부존재가 합리적·객관적 근거에 의하여 뒷받침되는지 판단하여야 한다.
Unofficial English translation
Where one spouse files an action seeking confirmation of the nullity of a marriage against the other spouse, alleging that the spouse did not have a true intent to marry at the time of the marriage registration, the Family Court must, through an investigation ex officio, determine whether the nonexistence of the intent to marry is supported by reasonable and objective grounds.
Disposition
Partly reversed and remanded Stated in the decision
원심판결 중 본소의 주위적 청구 중 혼인무효 확인 부분 및 위자료에 관한 피고(반소원고) 패소 부분, 본소의 예비적 청구에 관한 부분, 반소에 관한 부분을 파기하고, 이 부분 사건을 인천가정법원에 환송한다.
Unofficial English translation
The part of the judgment of the court below concerning the claim for confirmation of the nullity of marriage among the principal claim of the main action, the part in which the defendant (counter-plaintiff) lost with respect to the consolation money, the part concerning the alternative claim of the main action, and the part concerning the counterclaim are reversed, and the case with respect to this part is remanded to the Incheon Family Court.
Form of the test
Circumstances weighed Stated in the decision
언어장벽 및 문화와 관습의 차이 등으로 혼인생활의 양상이 다를 가능성이 있는 점을 고려하여 외국인 배우자의 혼인의사 유무를 세심하게 판단할 필요가 있다
Unofficial English translation
There is a need to carefully determine whether the foreign spouse has the intent to marry, considering that the patterns of marital life may differ due to language barriers and differences in culture and customs
Factors
- 혼인의사의 부존재가 합리적·객관적 근거에 의하여 뒷받침되는지
- 상대방 배우자에게 혼인신고 당시 혼인의사가 없었던 것인지, 혼인 이후에 혼인을 유지할 의사가 없어진 것인지에 대해서 구체적으로 심리·판단하여야 하고
- 혼인생활 중에 나타난 몇몇 사정만으로 혼인신고 당시 혼인의사가 없었다고 추단하여 혼인무효 사유에 해당한다고 단정할 것은 아니다
- 통상 외국인 배우자가 자신의 본국에서 그 국가 법령이 정하는 혼인의 성립절차를 마친 후 그에 기하여 우리나라 민법에 따른 혼인신고를 하고
- 혼인성립 이전의 단계에서 성립 요건의 흠결로 혼인이 유효하게 성립하지 않은 혼인무효(민법 제815조)
Unofficial English translation
• Whether the nonexistence of the intent to marry is supported by reasonable and objective grounds
• It must specifically examine and determine whether the other spouse did not have the intent to marry at the time of the marriage registration, or whether the spouse came to have no intent to maintain the marriage after the marriage, and
• It cannot be summarily concluded that the ground for the nullity of marriage is met by inferring, from only a few circumstances manifested during the marital life, that there was no intent to marry at the time of the marriage registration
• Ordinarily, after a foreign spouse has completed the procedure for the formation of a marriage prescribed by the laws and regulations of that country in his or her home country, the foreign spouse makes a marriage registration under the Civil Act of Korea on the basis thereof, and
• Nullity of marriage due to a defect in the requirements for formation at a stage prior to the formation of the marriage, whereby the marriage was not validly formed (Article 815 of the Civil Act)
Relation to precedent
Follows earlier decisions Stated in the decision
대법원 2010. 6. 10. 선고 2010므574 판결(공2010하, 1372)
Unofficial English translation
Supreme Court Decision 2010Meu574 decided June 10, 2010 (Gong 2010 Ha, 1372)
Decisions referred to
대법원 2010. 6. 10. 선고 2010므574 판결(공2010하, 1372)
Burden of proof
Not addressed Not in the decision
Open question and revisit condition
Where a court must not conclude that a ground for nullity exists by inferring from a few circumstances of married life that there was no intent when the marriage was reported, must the reasonable and objective grounds come only from circumstances before the report, or may circumstances arising after the marriage support that inference as auxiliary evidence?
The judgment the Incheon Family Court hands down on remand in 2018Reu11853 and 2018Reu11860 will show what record supports the intent finding. Any later decision on Article 815(i) of the Civil Act, a change to the marriage establishment procedure set by the spouse's home country law, or a change to the marriage migrant visa rules would call for this entry to be read again.
Cross-family AI independent reading & axis check
7 of 8 axes matched GPT-6 Astra (OpenAI, codex CLI) · 2026-10-25
A reader from another model family (GPT-6 Astra), given the official text but not the primary reading, agreed on 7 of the 8 axes; the readings differed on axis 8 (open question and revisit condition).
Axis 8 (Open question and revisit condition): Primary “Where a court must not conclude that a ground for nullity exists by inferring from a few circumstances of married life that there was no intent when the marriage was reported, must the reasonable and objective grounds come only from circumstances before the report, or may circumstances arising after the marriage support that inference as auxiliary evidence?” vs Independent “What specific evidence would suffice to establish an initial absence of marital intent after the required investigation?”
The primary reading asks whether post-marriage circumstances may serve as auxiliary evidence of initial lack of intent, while the independent reading asks what specific evidence would suffice to establish that lack.
일방 배우자가 상대방 배우자를 상대로 혼인신고 당시에 진정한 혼인의사가 없었다는 사유를 주장하면서 혼인무효 확인의 소를 제기하는 경우, 가정법원으로서는 직권조사를 통해 혼인의사의 부존재가 합리적·객관적 근거에 의하여 뒷받침되는지 판단하여야 한다.Raw responses and comparison record: Protocol · Blind readings (JSONL) · Axis comparison (JSONL) · SHA-256 (JSON)
Lower-court contrast & scope of application
Lower-court reading vs. Supreme Court holding
Lower-court context: The Incheon Family Court, in its judgment of 5 April 2019 (2018Reu11853, 2018Reu11860), held that a ground for nullity under Article 815(i) of the Civil Act was made out, relying on the defendant having given the names of her parents differently, on the cohabitation with the plaintiff having lasted only 40 days, and on her leaving home soon after receiving a foreign registration certificate. On the premise that the marriage was void it granted part of the plaintiff's claim for consolation money and dismissed the defendant's counterclaim for divorce.
Supreme Court standard: The Supreme Court found that reading hard to accept. The only pre-marriage circumstance was the giving of the parents' names, and since Defendant gave the names of her father and mother differently but whether they were entirely different names was uncertain, an intention to conceal identity was hard to see; the 40-day cohabitation alone could not negate the intention to marry, disregarding the time, effort and expenses spent on reaching the marriage, and the remaining circumstances concerned conduct after the marriage, closer to a ground for divorce. The court below had misapprehended Article 815(i) of the Civil Act and failed to examine what it needed to, and the part of the judgment resting on that finding fell with it.
Distinguishing conditions
- A case where the absence of intent when the marriage was reported is supported by reasonable and objective grounds, which is what the Court required the court below to find.
- A case where the grounds relied on all arose after the marriage was established and bear on whether to keep the marriage, which the Court treated as closer to divorce under Article 840 of the Civil Act.
- A suit not brought against a foreign spouse, in which the additional considerations the Court stated for a foreign spouse's intent do not apply.
Record verification notes
Sort each ground the party relying on nullity offers into what happened before the marriage report and what happened after it, since the Court kept the two apart. For the pre-marriage period, gather the record of the marriage establishment procedure completed in the spouse's home country, the marriage report in Korea, and the issue of the marriage migrant visa, together with anything showing that a name was given differently for concealment. Then weigh the language barrier and the differences in culture and custom that the Court said must be considered with care.
From the official text
Points at issue
우리나라 국민이 외국인 배우자에 대하여 혼인의 의사가 없다는 이유로 혼인무효 소송을 제기한 경우, 외국인 배우자의 혼인의사 유무를 판단할 때 고려하여야 할 사항
Unofficial English translation
Where a Korean national files a lawsuit to declare a marriage void against a foreign spouse on the ground that there was no intent to marry, matters to be considered in determining whether the foreign spouse had the intent to marry
Summary of the holding
민법 제815조 제1호가 혼인무효의 사유로 규정하는 ‘당사자 간에 혼인의 합의가 없는 때’란 당사자 사이에 사회관념상 부부라고 인정되는 정신적·육체적 결합을 생기게 할 의사의 합치가 없는 경우를 의미한다. 혼인무효 사건은 가류 가사소송사건으로서 자백에 관한 민사소송법의 규정이 적용되지 않고 법원이 직권으로 사실조사 및 필요한 증거조사를 하여야 하는바(가사소송법 제12조, 제17조), 일방 배우자가 상대방 배우자를 상대로 혼인신고 당시에 진정한 혼인의사가 없었다는 사유를 주장하면서 혼인무효 확인의 소를 제기하는 경우, 가정법원으로서는 직권조사를 통해 혼인의사의 부존재가 합리적·객관적 근거에 의하여 뒷받침되는지 판단하여야 한다. 민법은 혼인성립 이전의 단계에서 성립 요건의 흠결로 혼인이 유효하게 성립하지 않은 혼인무효(민법 제815조)와 혼인이 성립한 후 발생한 사유로 혼인이 해소되는 이혼(민법 제840조)을 구분하여 규정하고 있다. 또한 혼인무효는 이혼의 경우에 비하여 가족관계등록부의 처리 방식이 다르고, 이혼과 달리 혼인무효의 소가 제기되지 않은 상태에서도 유족급여나 상속과 관련된 소송에서 선결문제로 주장할 수 있어 유리한 효과가 부여된다. 따라서 가정법원은 상대방 배우자에게 혼인신고 당시 혼인의사가 없었던 것인지, 혼인 이후에 혼인을 유지할 의사가 없어진 것인지에 대해서 구체적으로 심리·판단하여야 하고, 혼인의사라는 개념이 다소 추상적이고 내면적인 것이라는 사정에 기대어 상대방 배우자가 혼인을 유지하기 위한 노력을 게을리하였다거나 혼인관계 종료를 의도하는 언행을 하는 등 혼인생활 중에 나타난 몇몇 사정만으로 혼인신고 당시 혼인의사가 없었다고 추단하여 혼인무효 사유에 해당한다고 단정할 것은 아니다. 우리나라 국민이 외국인 배우자에 대하여 혼인의 의사가 없다는 이유로 혼인무효 소송을 제기한 경우, 가정법원은 위 법리에 더하여 통상 외국인 배우자가 자신의 본국에서 그 국가 법령이 정하는 혼인의 성립절차를 마친 후 그에 기하여 우리나라 민법에 따른 혼인신고를 하고, 우리나라 출입국관리법령에 따라 결혼동거 목적의 사증을 발급받아 입국하는 절차를 거쳐 비로소 혼인생활에 이르게 된다는 점, 언어장벽 및 문화와 관습의 차이 등으로 혼인생활의 양상이 다를 가능성이 있는 점을 고려하여 외국인 배우자의 혼인의사 유무를 세심하게 판단할 필요가 있다.
Order
원심판결 중 본소의 주위적 청구 중 혼인무효 확인 부분 및 위자료에 관한 피고(반소원고) 패소 부분, 본소의 예비적 청구에 관한 부분, 반소에 관한 부분을 파기하고, 이 부분 사건을 인천가정법원에 환송한다.
Unofficial English translation
The part of the judgment of the court below concerning the claim for confirmation of the nullity of marriage among the principal claim of the main action, the part in which the defendant (counter-plaintiff) lost with respect to the consolation money, the part concerning the alternative claim of the main action, and the part concerning the counterclaim are reversed, and the case with respect to this part is remanded to the Incheon Family Court.
Provisions referred to
민법 제815조 제1호, 제840조, 가사소송법 제12조, 제17조
Read 2026-10-25 · Cross-read 2026-10-25. All quotes matched against the official text. The Chinese-character placeholders the court used for anonymised parties are given in their Korean readings, and parenthetical Chinese-character glosses are omitted.
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