A legal provision that limits the Chinese characters (hanja) usable in children's names at birth registration to a "commonly used range" does not infringe on parents' right to name their children, the Constitutional Court has ruled.
According to legal circles on Tuesday, the Constitutional Court ruled on October 29 that Article 44, Paragraph 3 of the Act on Registration of Family Relations, and Article 37, Paragraph 1, Item 2 and Paragraph 2 of the Rules on Registration of Family Relations, are constitutional, with a 5-4 decision (five for constitutional, four for unconstitutional).
The case began when petitioner A attempted to register her daughter's name as "Rae-○ (婡○)" but was denied. The official in charge recorded the name only in Hangul, citing that the hanja in question was not included in the "hanja for personal names" designated by Supreme Court rules. A then filed a constitutional petition, arguing that the provision infringes on the right to name one's child.
Constitutional Court President Kim Sang-hwan and Justices Kim Hyung-du, Jeong Hyung-sik, Cho Han-chang, and Jeong Kye-seon, who voted for constitutionality, upheld the existing precedent, stating that because the number of hanja is vast and their scope is unclear, the range of commonly used hanja needs to be predetermined for registration in the computer system. They added, "Through revisions of Supreme Court rules, the hanja available for personal names now number 9,389, which is more than in China or Japan, where hanja are used as official languages." They further explained, "The hanja in question can be used privately, and specific means such as name-change or supplementary reporting procedures are in place, so the degree to which fundamental rights are restricted is not significant."
On the other hand, Justices Jeong Jeong-mi, Kim Bok-hyung, Ma Eun-hyuk, and Oh Young-jun, who voted for unconstitutionality, emphasized, "A name is a means of expressing individual identity, and parents giving names to their children carries unique meaning in the formation of family life." They added, "Unless it runs counter to the child's welfare, parents have the right to freely use the hanja they wish." They also pointed out, "Most of the current administrative system has been computerized, and a technical environment has been established that can input and output tens of thousands of hanja through international standards such as Unicode. Significantly expanding the usable hanja does not appear administratively impossible."
