A Compatative Study On The Land Law Systems Of Russia And China

Mankind inhabits land and also draws its main source of wealth from the land. Therefore land rights is one of the most important aspects of civil rights in any country. Historically, modern Chinese civil law has been deeply influenced by the Soviet Union. The concept of land socialization first appeared in ancient times; however it was not until the1930s that this concept was brought to life in the USSR. In the late1950s China copied the Soviet Union’s and other socialistic countries’experience and carried out socialization, all the lands were transferred into state and collective ownership. At the end of the20th century Russian and Chinese land law systems underwent great changes and reforms. Russia carried out radical land privatization, and within a few years all the lands, both state and collective, had been privatized. China, however, still preserves a dual land system including state and collective ownership, which is still public in nature, there is no private ownership as such; Chinese citizens only have usufruct, but not proprietary rights. Such land system has two main features:"public ownership and private use" and "unequal status of state and collective ownership". This is not only a basic difference between Russian and Chinese land law systems, but also a system base to regulate legal land relations of the two countries. Russia and China are neighboring countries in transition with similar historical background and modern economic goals, that have moved from planned economies to market economies, therefore studying advantages and disadvantages of their land law systems has practical value and real meaning. Given that China is considering reforms of land system, it will make benefit from studying the development of Russian land law system and its legislation experience in given area, taking into account its own national conditions.This paper uses historical evidence-based approach, comparative law approach and other research methods to make a comparative analysis of proprietary rights, usufruct, circulation of land rights, land rights protection, and other aspects of the land law systems of both countries, and also studies the historical reasons for the differences between them.The contents of the paper are as follows:first, the paper describes the historical evolution of Russian and Chinese land law systems, states historical reasons for today’s land law systems of both countries; second, it describes and compares proprietary rights, usufruct, land rights circulation, land rights protection and other aspects of land law systems of Russia and China; finally, it analyzes the merits and shortcomings of the land systems of the two countries, studies approaches to improve Russia’s land law system and on that basis gives suggestions on how to develop and improve China’s land law system.