土地法第 18 條規定：「外國人在中華民國取得或設定土地權利，以依條約或其本國法律，中華民國人民得在該國享受同樣權利者為限。」對於外國人是否得取得臺灣的土地，昭示了採取互惠原則的意旨。依據上開規定，外籍配偶如其本國不許我國人民在該國取得或設定土地權利時，是否仍准許其繼承在中華民國之不動產，即生疑問。 最高法院 97 年度台上字第 2051 號民事判決中，法官試圖提出一項衡平的解決方案，以解決外國繼承人（配偶）之繼承權保障與臺灣土地法政策對於外國人取得土地限制規定間之衝突問題，其法律適用之推論與對於外國人權利保障之立場，頗值研究。本文之目的，即在於分析並評釋系爭判決的推論過程，以供我國法院與學界在外國人之民事法律地位問題上之參考。

Land Act Article 18 stipulates：“Only those aliens may acquire or create rights over land in the Republic of China who are nationals of States that have diplomatic relations with the Republic of China and permit, according either to treaty or to their municipal Acts, Chinese nationals to enjoy the same rights in their respective countries.”The Act made clear the intention to take the principle of reciprocity. Base on the Article above, whether a foreign spouse shall acquire rights over land by succession in the Republic of China, in case their country do not permit Taiwanese to enjoy the same rights over land, would be a difficult issue. In the Supreme Court Judgment of 2008 Tai-Shan No. 2051, the judge tried to put forward a equitable solution to resolve the conflict between the foreign heirs (spouse)protection and the restrictions for foreigners to acquire land in Taiwan land policy. The judgment’s legal reasoning and it’s position on foreigner’s right protection are worth to study. The purpose of this article is to analyze and comment the reasoning of the judgment for our courts and academic reference on the issue of civil status of foreigners.