Article 988, Subparagraph 2, of the Civil Code stipulates that a bigamous marriage is void. This stipulation seeks to maintain the social order of the monogamous system. Under general circumstances, this stipulation does not conflict with the Constitution. However, where a person's first marriage is dissolved by a final court decision, and a third party, in good faith and without negligence, trusting in the validity of such final court decision, enters into marriage with a party of the previous marriage, and subsequently such final and binding judgmentis reversed, the latter marriage (between that person and the third party), thus becomes bigamous. This situation differs from general bigamy, and thus, according to the principle of legitimate expectation, the validity of the latter marriage should be maintained. Since the said stipulation does not adequately consider the above mentioned situation, it does not conform with the right to freedom of marriage contained in the Constitution. This Law shall be discussed and amended accordingly. During the period prior to the Law being amended however, the above stipulation regarding a marriage entered into with trust in a final and binding judgmentshould not apply. In a situation where a previous marriage and a latter marriage coexist due to the abovementioned situation, the third party may sue for divorce.

　　　 Article 988, Subparagraph 2, of the Civil Code stipulates that a bigamous marriage is void. The purpose of this stipulation seeks to maintain the social order of the monogamous system. Under general circumstances, this stipulation does not conflict with the Constitution. However, an adult without a spouse is free to enter into marriage and another person is free to enter into marriage with such person. This freedom of marriage, provided in Article 22 of the Constitution, merits protection.　　If a previous marital relationship between parties has been extinguished by a final and binding judgment(such as a divorce decision), either person may remarry. After the person and a third person entered into marriage (latter marriage), the final and binding judgmentwas reversed by legal proceedings (such as a retrial) and the latter marriage became a bigamous marriage. Such bigamy is due to inconsistent decisions rendered by the courts and differs from general bigamy. Where the defect in the previous decision may not have been known or might have been known by parties to the latter marriage, if at the time when the latter marriage was entered into by the third party and the party from the previous marriage did not know or could not know of such defect in the decision, they are deemed to be in good faith and without fault. Since such latter marriage was entered into with trust in the final court decision, then according to the principle of legitimate expectation, the validity of the latter marriage should be maintained in order to avoid the unpredictable harm to the freedom of marriage provided to the people (especially women) contained in the Constitution. Whether it is in good faith and without negligence is a question of fact that shall be determined by the court after the conclusion of investigation of the evidence. Where a bigamous marriage exists because of inconsistency between the previous decision and the latter decision, such marriage should remain valid until and unless adjudged invalid by a court. Where no court has ruled such a marriage invalid, the latter marriage should remain valid. Article 988, Subparagraph 2, of the Civil Code regarding the invalidity of a bigamous marriage does not address the special situation where bigamy results due to a third party's trust in a final and binding judgmentand other types of bigamy that result due to other similar causes. Moreover, it does not contain a reasonable stipulation regarding the status and other issues of children born of parents outside of marriage. (Prior to the amendment of the Civil Code, a bigamous marriage can be cancelled by a court decision. The validity of such a cancellation can not be retroactively applied, so there is no issue regarding the status of children born of parents outside of marriage. The current Article 999-1 of the Civil Code only resolves the issue of child custody. This is insufficient.) This does not conform to the intent of the Constitution in the protection of the people's rights. Thus, this should be discussed and amended. The above stipulation of the Civil Code should not apply to a bigamous marriage entered into by a third party who does so in good faith and without negligence, and who trusted in a final court decision. In the event where a previous marriage and a latter marriage coexist due to the abovementioned situation, the third party may sue for divorce in accordance with the provision of Article 1052, Paragraph 1, Subparagraph 1, or Paragraph 2, of the Civil Code.