Study On Legislative Protection Of Farmers' Land Rights And Interests

Human rights are essentially something of equity. In China, the problems concerning social equity derived from those of rural areas, agriculture and farmers become increasingly severer, even drawing worldwide attention.Nowadays in China the fundamental problems concerning farmers lie in the loss of their land rights and interests, of which the root causes are the defects of the existing legal system. The study on the legislative protection of farmers'land rights and interests is aimed at finding out the shortcomings of China's existing laws concerned and setting forward countermeasures and proposals. Up to now, the study and discussion upon problems concerning farmers, with different starting points and methods, have got diversified conclusions. The author of this dissertation considers that the crux of the problems concerning farmers is resulted from the deficiency of protection of farmers'land rights and interests. And then an all-round view over it is made from the angles of economics and law. There are over 900 million farmers in China, and their living conditions have close relations to the country's political stability and over-all and harmonious development of economy and society. So to study these problems is of great importance both theoretically and practically.This dissertation makes a summary of the previous studies on legislative protection of farmers'land rights and interests both at home and abroad, and a profound exposition of the basic theory of land property about legislative protection of farmers'land rights and interests. Upon reviewing the process of formation of the system of protecting farmers'land rights and interests and summing up several types of experiences in land in"land reform"in China, the dissertation analyses the harms caused by the existing system to farmers'rights and interests. Based on the summarization of some other countries in legislative protection of land property owners'rights and interests, it sets forward the thinking approaches, ideas and suggestions for the improvement of legislative protection of farmers'land rights and interests in China. The dissertation consists of nine chapters and a conclusion.Chapter one: Introduction. It expounds the background, objective and significance of this study, the advances of the research in this field at home and abroad, the approaches and methods of this study and possible innovations. It considers that both China's reality and international environment requires a must of improving the Chinese farmers'economic conditions and social status. The foreign specialists all think that law should reflect social principles and emphasize equity, while most Chinese scholars pay great attention to the study on land use efficiency but neglect the protection of rights and interests of land users– farmers. So an all-round review should be made over the existing farmland system from the angles of economics and law.Chapter two: Basic theory for legislative protection of farmers'land rights and interests. It expounds the basic theory for legislative protection of farmers'land rights, the theory of property law and the theory of transaction cost. It also explains the function and evaluation of land system, and the micro operating mechanism of land ownership system. These lay a foundation for looking correctly on the existing farmland ownership system and working out a new system in accordance with legal logic so as to provide better protection for farmers'land rights and interests.Chapter three: Evolution and performance of the system of protecting farmers'land rights and interests. China's system of protecting farmers'land rights and interests has evolved with the changes of the system of farmers'land ownership. The existing legal system of farmers'land ownership is characterized as the household contract responsibility system on the premise of not changing the farmers'collective ownership of land. Such a system has formed gradually in nearly thirty years after the founding of New China, undergoing the movements of Land Reform, Cooperatives and People's Communes. Viewed from either economic or social angle, the household contract responsibility system is the best compared with the former ones, as it defines relatively clear land property rights and gains remarkable economic and social benefits.Chapter four: Summary of the experiences in land system reform since the implementation of land contract system. It presents the experiences of the test of land joint-stock system in Yan'an of Shaanxi Province, the test of strengthening farmers'collective land ownership and activating their individual rights of land use in Meitan of Guizhou Province, the test of share-holding system in Nanhai of Guangdong Province, and then makes a summary and evaluation of these experiences. Upon analyzing the gains and losses of these tests, it considers that most of these tests failed to get popularized as they did not take the protection of farmers'land rights and interests as the first priority, while the share-holding system has optimistic developing prospects as it takes full account of the land owners'interests.Chapter five: Infringement of the existing land ownership system upon farmers'rights and interests. The infringement of the existing land ownership system upon farmers' rights and interests is manifested in two aspects: erosion of farmers'rights and violation of their economic interests, which can be concretely stated as deficiency of legislative protection to farmers'collective land ownership, uncertainty of farmers'contractual rights, unclearness of land beneficial rights, impossibility of normal circulation of land contractual rights, etc.Chapter six: Legislative protection of land owners'interests in other countries (regions) and its enlightenment. It outlines the forms and characteristics of major land ownership systems in the world,with emphasis on the current situations of land legislation in UK, Japan, USA and Taiwan region, whose experiences can be concluded as the follows: Establishing farmers'full land ownership; offering flexible land use rights to farmers; setting up land acquisition system which is favorable to protecting land owners; and always taking the protection of land owners'rights and interests as the motivation of land system reform.Chapter seven: Conceptions of the legislative protection of farmers'land rights and interests. It expounds the basic ideas and principles for the improvement of legislative protection of farmers'land rights and interests, setting forward approaches to strengthen legislative protection of farmers'land rights and interests from two major levels like farmers'collective land ownership and individual or households'contractual rights. At the same time, it defines the rights of the state to the farmers'collective land and makes arrangement for the improvement of the property rights of the collectives to their land and the property rights of farmer individuals (households) to their collective land.Chapter eight: Proposals for the legislative protection of farmers'land rights and interests. It sets forward concrete suggestions for the legislative protection of farmers'land rights and interests, including the measures of making clear the main body of the owner of farmers'collective land, establishing the plan and compensation standards for land expropriation that ensure the increasingly rise of the farmers living standards by paying every farmer concerned every year, deepening the reform of land contracting system, etc. Upon actual reckoning, it considers that the suggested standards are both fair and feasible.Chapter nine: Optimization of the environment for the legislative protection of farmers'land rights and interests. To realize the ideas for the improvement of the legislative protection of farmers'land rights and interests, the state should establish the legal system that embodies democratic concept, strengthen the building of farmers'democratic culture, creating favorable external environment for land circulation.