This article examines traditional theories about how to understand the legal nature of the claim for recovery of succession and analyses the Korean Supreme Court cases. As a result, this article concludes as follows:
First, regarding to the legal nature of the claim for recovery of succession, there have traditionally been ① the theory of confirmation of inheritance eligibility, ② the theory of the claim for property returns, and ③ the theory of compromise. In addition, the theory of confirmation of inheritance eligibility is divided into the theory of confirmation right and the theory of claim for request. Moreover, the theory of the claim for property returns has the theory of independent rights and the theory of collective rights. By the way, the reason why there has been the above dispute is that the Korean Civil Code has the only one article on the claim for recovery of succession. Of course, it could be possible that we construe the claim for recovery of succession as a independent right from other individual rights of claim, but in this case, peaple can exercise individual rights of claim such as claim of real property right even after the exclusion period regarding to the claim for recovery of succession in Article 999, Paragraph 2 of the Korean Civil Code. This means that the exclusion period for the fast solution of the inheritance relationship would be meaningless. Thus, the theory of collective rights that assumes the claim for recovery of succession is the collection of individual rights of claim makes sense.
Second, with respect to the legal nature of the claim for recovery of succession, the Korean Supreme Court initially viewed from the perspective of the theory of independent rights, but has took a viewpoint from the perspective of the theory of collective rights since early 1980s.
Third, by analysing the relationship between individual rights of claim such as the claim for property returns, the claim for article in possession returns, the claim for restitution of unjust enrichment, the claim for compensation due to torts and the claim for recovery of succession, this article concludes that it is appropriate to understand the legal nature of the claim for recovery of succession from the view of the theory of collective rights.