Taming the dragon: rural land takings law in modern China

<p>This thesis examines the theories and practices surrounding the rural land takings law in modern China. It identifies and rejects the dominant Transition Paradigm in the existing literature which treats the contemporary crisis of rural land expropriation in China as a case of unfulfilled co...

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Main Author: Peng, C
Other Authors: Craig, P
Format: Thesis
Language:English
Published: 2014
Subjects:
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author Peng, C
author2 Craig, P
author_facet Craig, P
Peng, C
author_sort Peng, C
collection OXFORD
description <p>This thesis examines the theories and practices surrounding the rural land takings law in modern China. It identifies and rejects the dominant Transition Paradigm in the existing literature which treats the contemporary crisis of rural land expropriation in China as a case of unfulfilled constitutional promise and dispenses prescriptions aimed at developing the Chinese expropriation law towards the supposedly more advanced models of takings law found in other countries, especially the USA. By unearthing the long overlooked historical lineage within which the rural land takings law evolves over the past century in China, including the almost forgotten original takings clause in the 1954 PRC Constitution and the foundational theories propounded by both the communist and nationalist parties, this thesis offers a much richer picture on how and why the Chinese expropriation law has become the way it is today. It shows that the widely recognized phenomenon of “land finance” is a symptom rather than cause of the problem, which lies in the deeply entrenched tradition of rural land takings for the party-state’s social transformative programmes, rendering the Chinese experience incomparable to that of any other countries. The current takings clause in the 1982 PRC Constitution and the present law in this area, despite the relevant reforms over the past decade, remain to faithfully reflect such a tradition characterized by the state’s plan-based top-down control over rural land and the presumption of state expropriation in non-agricultural use of rural land. Since these have been the paramount features of the Chinese land regime for over half a century and are unlikely to change in the foreseeable future, most of the reform recommendations made in the existing scholarship are either irrelevant or unfeasible. However, this is not to say that no change is possible. A more modest yet more realistic reform proposal will be put forward.</p>
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spelling oxford-uuid:e5566b44-d021-4037-9e03-28c0c69eae1b2022-03-27T10:23:12ZTaming the dragon: rural land takings law in modern ChinaThesishttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_db06uuid:e5566b44-d021-4037-9e03-28c0c69eae1bLawChinese StudiesEnglishOxford University Research Archive - Valet2014Peng, CCraig, PThornton, P<p>This thesis examines the theories and practices surrounding the rural land takings law in modern China. It identifies and rejects the dominant Transition Paradigm in the existing literature which treats the contemporary crisis of rural land expropriation in China as a case of unfulfilled constitutional promise and dispenses prescriptions aimed at developing the Chinese expropriation law towards the supposedly more advanced models of takings law found in other countries, especially the USA. By unearthing the long overlooked historical lineage within which the rural land takings law evolves over the past century in China, including the almost forgotten original takings clause in the 1954 PRC Constitution and the foundational theories propounded by both the communist and nationalist parties, this thesis offers a much richer picture on how and why the Chinese expropriation law has become the way it is today. It shows that the widely recognized phenomenon of “land finance” is a symptom rather than cause of the problem, which lies in the deeply entrenched tradition of rural land takings for the party-state’s social transformative programmes, rendering the Chinese experience incomparable to that of any other countries. The current takings clause in the 1982 PRC Constitution and the present law in this area, despite the relevant reforms over the past decade, remain to faithfully reflect such a tradition characterized by the state’s plan-based top-down control over rural land and the presumption of state expropriation in non-agricultural use of rural land. Since these have been the paramount features of the Chinese land regime for over half a century and are unlikely to change in the foreseeable future, most of the reform recommendations made in the existing scholarship are either irrelevant or unfeasible. However, this is not to say that no change is possible. A more modest yet more realistic reform proposal will be put forward.</p>
spellingShingle Law
Chinese Studies
Peng, C
Taming the dragon: rural land takings law in modern China
title Taming the dragon: rural land takings law in modern China
title_full Taming the dragon: rural land takings law in modern China
title_fullStr Taming the dragon: rural land takings law in modern China
title_full_unstemmed Taming the dragon: rural land takings law in modern China
title_short Taming the dragon: rural land takings law in modern China
title_sort taming the dragon rural land takings law in modern china
topic Law
Chinese Studies
work_keys_str_mv AT pengc tamingthedragonrurallandtakingslawinmodernchina