以資訊技術分析我國離婚贍養費相關裁判

Abstract

我國離婚贍養費制度係以民法第1057條為基礎，通說認為贍養權利人須滿足所有要件，即因判決離婚而陷於生活困難，且對離婚無過失，方得依該條向贍養義務人請求給付贍養費。為檢視現行司法實務是否確實反映此種情形，本文嘗試應用資訊技術，全面性分析2000年至2016年間我國地方法院及少家法院所作成贍養費相關裁判共439件。由裁判書資料的抓取、結構化處理、分解與擷取，至運用正則表達式以及布林邏輯來對裁判全文、段落以及抽取欄位進行自動化編碼與布林邏輯演算，再以人工解讀編碼作為驗證。本文選定「法院是否准許離婚」、「法院是否命給付」、「法院是否認為原告請求有理由」及「本件是否為兩願離婚」的四個程式編碼項目輔以人工判讀驗證後，發現自動化編碼足以協助研究者可靠地剖析裁判書所顯示趨勢，惟仍受其對領域知識的理解與判斷所左右。實務上請求給付贍養費的相關裁判中，除了依民法第1057條請求者外，亦有相當數量係依雙方就離婚贍養費約定請求者，兩種裁判樣態顯現出相當差異。結論上，本文認為經過處理、分析並判讀驗證過的編碼結果，確實證明了本文提出之假設，亦即我國法院實務對於現行贍養費制度（即民法第1057條）的運用過於嚴苛。民法第1057條現行規定將應予考量的要素「要件化」後，使得個案情形雖輕重程度有別，卻可能因為是否達到構成要件的門檻，使法律效果以全有或全無的方式呈現。因此，若要真正達成保障離婚後弱方配偶之生活、彌補婚姻關係中造成的所得獲取能力之不平等，應修改法條，使原先構成門檻的要件能更加彈性化，2018年法務部所提出之「民法親屬編部分條文修正草案」，是頗值得贊同之方向。

The institution of alimony based on Article 1057 of the Civil Code in Taiwan is too strict that it is unanimously recognized that requiring obligor to meet all conditions including the divorce must have led to his or her economic difficulties in living expenses, and he or she was not held responsible for the divorce before filing any alimony claim. Focusing on examining whether current judicial practices align with described situation, this paper adopts a computational approach to comprehensively analyze 439 court decisions between 2000 and 2016 utilizing retrieval, structuring, decomposition and extraction of the court decisions’ text as well as regular expressions and Boolean logic to conduct data transformation (similar to coding in qualitative analysis). Based on the transformed binary dataset, this paper focuses on four variables representing 'whether the court allows divorce,' 'whether the court orders alimony payment,' 'whether the court thinks the plaintiff’s claim is reasonable” and 'whether the spouses agree to divorce.' The artificially validation and interpretation of above results suggest that data transformation achieved using computer programs is effective and reliable in analyzing judicial trends on specific topics, but still vulnerable to the research’s own understanding and knowledge in jurisprudence. It is observed that there are a considerable number of alimony claims filed in accordance with agreements or pacts reached with collaborative divorces compared to others filed in accordance with Article 1057 of the Civil Code. In conclusion, the artificially verified empirical results suggests the proposed hypothesis being the current alimony institution stated by Article 1057 of the Civil Code is too strict for that it requires all the conditions necessary for its application. To ensure the economically weaker spouse’s basic living needs of to be met after divorce as well as making up for the economic inequality he or she has endured during a marriage following its dissolution, existing law should be amended to make the alimony institution more tolerant. The draft amendment to relevant articles in the Family section of the Civil Code, as proposed by the Ministry of Justice in 2018, aligns with this paper’s proposition, and is able to help eliminating economic inequality after divorce if ratified.