Balance Of Interests In Demolition And Relocation From The Perspective Of Administrative Law

The issue of demolition and relocation is not only an important economic issue in urban development and management and a public administrative issue in urban planning and construction, but also a significant social issue of accelerating balanced development and building up a harmonious city. How to settle the conflicts and disputes in demolition and relocation from the source is a task of top priority. In terms of legislation of demolition, though a series of laws, policies and judicial explanations has been issued, various problems in legislation, administration of justice and enforcement have given rise to contradictions one after another in an endless stream. With the the Property Law becoming effective on October 1, 2007, the original Regulations for Management of Urban House Demolition will be put out of practice. In the meantime, National People's Congress has authorized the State Council to make corresponding administrative statutes to solve the issue of legal bases in urban units'and individuals'house collection and demolition after the enforcement of the Property Law. This has created a rare opportunity to solve the contradictions in demolition fundamentally. The author holds the view that the key to properly settling conflicts in demolition and relocation is to seek a mechanism to balance the interests of the people who carry out demolition, the owners of houses to be demolished, the government and the society.The government can learn from foreign practices to set up, in the interests of the society, various mechanisms and platforms to promote and the proper development of the city as well as maintain the legal rights of the house owners as so as to achieve the best balance between each party. Although to safeguard the interests of the house owners concerns social stability and must be treated cautiously, administrative means remain necessary for some owners who ask for exorbitant compensation. At the same time, the judicial authorities, as the last defence line of social justice, should play a more important role. According to the judicial explanation in 2005, the precondition of lawsuit is administrative adjudication, which violates the basic principle of administration by law, limits the freedom of choice of the parties concerned and is obviously unfavorable to the protection of the justified rights and interests of the parties concerned. Meanwhile, the government has much to do in balancing interests, too. In the existing policy frame, the people's government of Shanghai Pudong New Area, in the demolition and relocation work for the World Expo, by studying cautiously the policies, carrying out"sunshine relocation"by a uniform standard and with the leadership going to the front, has relocated 10570 households in about a year and accomplished 99% of the total relocation work in Pudong for the World Expo, whose scale or speed is unprecedented in Shanghai's demolition and relocation history. In particular, the people's government of Pudong New Area, on the basis of complying with Shanghai's Five Demolition and Relocation Administration Systems ( namely, the Demolition and Relocation Publicity System, the System of Handling Reception, the Complaint Reporting System, the System of Commitments and the Supervisory System) , has carried out the practice of "nine publicity" , " two participation""three uniforms" and " four simultaneities" , which has reduced contradiction to the minimum and has won unanimous praises from the residents.Therefore, the social order in a harmonious society should be an order governed by law. Only a legalized interest balancing mechanism can provide scientific legal bases for the mutual communication and exchange as well as for competition and cooperation between groups with different interests, so as to solve the interest conflicts of the whole society in a reasonable, democratic way and to develop the harmony, stability and prosperity of the society.