Customs on paddy field loss(浦落) and mud formation due to flooding(泥生) in Traditional Legislation

Abstract

In this study, I traced the custom of paddy field loss(浦落), which is recognized as the cause of the loss of land ownership in the jurisprudence of the Supreme Court decision. The paddy field loss was not judged as the cause of the loss of ownership from the Chosun Dynasty to the enlightenment period. According to the custom in the traditional society, when the paddy field loss was caused due to flooding and the land was submerged in a river, and a new land(泥生地) was created by the mud formation on the opposite shore or downstream of a river, the landowner of the paddy field loss could obtain the ownership of the new land. In addition, it can be seen that the legal principles of paddy field loss(浦落) and mud formation due to flooding(泥生) in the Chosun Dynasty are similarly applied to civil trials in the enlightenment period. However, the custom on paddy field loss and mud formation due to flooding has been no longer recognized by the decision of the Chosun High Court on November 1918. And in 1927, the Chosun Stream Order(朝鮮河川令) was enacted, which specified that the land which has become the public stream due to paddy field loss is not the subject of ownership in the text of the law. After liberation, the Supreme Court had faithfully succeeded the regulations of Chosun Stream Order(朝鮮河川令) and the decision by Chosun High Court. Therefore, the decision of supreme court has maintained that 'the land ownership is lost due to paddy field loss. In the traditional society, paddy field loss and mud formation due to flooding were approached in terms of the efficiency of the national tax administration. On the other hand, in the modern society after the Japanese colonial period, there is a difference in approaching paddy field loss and mud formation due to flooding as a matter of who belongs to land ownership.