Property Rights And Agrarian Land Rights In China

Land is the vital natural resources for human being living and social sustainable development, "it is the source of all production and all life existence". Land ownership and utilization have influenced significantly on the establishment and operation in a state economic and political institutions. In China, rural land right system is the core component in rural land institution. Household land contract, as the core reform in rural land right system, has provided the chances for farmers to obtain the land tenure rights individually on collective land. However, due to the influences of the traditional theory of property rights and economic institution and social system for a long period in China, high attention has been paid on rural collective land ownership than rural land tenure rights in the theory of civil law and legal system. It is because that the land tenure rights are derived as the property right from the rural collective ownership rights; and the land tenure rights are subordinate to the ownership of rural collective land, collective land ownership determines tenure rights. In addition, it is recommended to establish the system with the consideration of rural land usufruct rights being the center in rural land institution, and rural collective land ownership right could be considered to be neglected finally. The designing of legal framework of rural land right has attracted high attention. Because the solution of the rural land problems is the key point in the property rights institution of China. China rural development in the future will depend mostly on the solutions of rural land issues. The essential and the key issue in rural land is the land rights system, namely rural land ownership and land tenure.China is a socialist country, public ownership of means of production and the collective ownership system of rural land are the basic conditions faced by China, and these are also the foundation of rural land right system. Hence, the design of rural collective land right system neither follows completely the conceptual system and constitutional framework with real property right system, the Continental Legal Institutions which are established on the base of land private ownership; nor equals to land estates right systems in Anglo-American legal institutions (common law). It is regarded that the substantialconsiderations and orientation in land right system and the legal framework in the rural land collective ownership should be established with incentive mechanism in land right for individual farmers and strengthened the household independent control rights on collective land. Collective land resources could be allocated reasonably and utilized sustainable through the transformation of land tenure rights. Hence, base on the analysis and comparison on the theories of property rights and land rights and their institutional arrangements both in the Continental Legal Institutions and Anglo-American legal institutions, the paper distributed here makes the overall analysis and considerations on China conventional property right theory and legal framework, especially on property right system and rural land right institutional arrangement with taking ownership as the center component, further sets up the duality conceptual framework of "ownership-utilization" on China rural land right system. The duality system of rural land right is indicated the rural land right systems, including independent rural land ownership system and rural land utilization system; ownership and utilization are equal in coexistence and mutual action. This system mainly consists of the component below:Firstly, duality institution is indicated the two key systems on China rural land rights, one is rural land ownership system and the other one is rural land utilization system. In rural land ownership system, the key task in legal system is to establish and ensure rural land ownership, which reflects the farmer's collective interests. Relevant laws and regulations should be formulated with taking the rights and interests as the main...