Study On Collectively-Owned Land Transfer With The Orientation Of Protecting Farmers' Rights And Interests

Based on the notion of equal protection, this thesis mainly studies issues concerningcollectively-owned land transfer. In the course of the transfer, infringement to farmers' rightsand interests mainly results from undervalued land requisition by local government andretention of land added value return by the collective. This thesis attributes the latter to thecollective's internal governance and suggests solutions by the perfection of theself-governance system in the rural area and innovation of the collective property regime. Yet,the focus of this thesis is mainly on land requisition by local government and protection offarmers' rights and interests in the course of land requisition.This thesis mainly analyses the changes of cultivated land area and land-transferring feesin Hubei Province. Relative data are from the province's statistical yearbooks and annualreports of land and resources, and questionnaires. The thesis contains nine chapters under theguidance of the logic line of the status quo of collective land transfer - empirical analysis -field survey - exploration of root causes - practice research - analysis of experiences fromdeveloped countries - suggestions on institutional system. The first chapter makes anintroduction to the background of the thesis, current research status at home and abroad, andthe main innovations of this thesis. The second chapter explores the current situation of landtransfer by analyzing the present situation of land utilization. The third chapter carries out anempirical analysis of the infringement of farmers' rights and interests in the course of landtransfer. The next chapter makes a field survey in this regard. Based on the previous analysisof Hubei Province's condition, the fifth chapter reveals the reverse change relationshipbetween cultivated land area and land-transferring fees by analyzing relative national data andexplores regulations in the Constitution leading to the damage to farmers' land rights andinterests. Chapter Six discusses reforms of the collectively-owned land transfer regime andpolicy and legal obstacles. From the perspective of land development right, Chapter Sevenintroduces developed countries' experiences in offering equal protection to parties to landtransfer transactions. Chapter Eight puts forward proposals on rural collectively-owned landtransfer regime with the orientation to protect farmers' rights and interests in accordance with China's realities. The last chapter draws a conclusion as well as points out some flaws in thethesis and the direction of future research.Innovations of this thesis include:1. Perspective of research. From the perspective of "resource - asset", this thesis inquiresinto approaches to offer equal protection to farmers in the course of land transfer. This thesistreats collectively-owned land as resources or factor of production. Treated as such, itsunrestricted transfer will enable the market to play the basic role in allocating factors ofproduction, and the necessity to offer it equal protection will make farmers suppliers in theland market, thus breaking the monopoly of the state.2. Methodology. Clustering and econometric models are used in this thesis to analyse thechanges in land utilization and damages to farmers' land rights and interests in Hubei Province.Up to now, the two approaches have not been used in documents on land transfer in HubeiProvince.3. Conclusions. First, for the first time, this thesis pinpoints the root cause why farmers'land rights and interests can not enjoy equal protection -- conflicts between Article 10 andArticle 12 of China's Constitution. Article 10 says that land in urban area belongs to the stateand Article 12 says that public property is sacred and inviolable. And second, innovativepolicy proposals are put forward in terms of equally protecting farmers' rights and interests inthe process of land transfer.