On The Definition Of Public Interest In House Demolition

With the acceleration of urbanization in China,house demolition was gradually becoming a hot social issue,causing the social contradiction and conflicts spiraling up,which urged us to review over the issue from the perspective of law again.This thesis,using the methods of positive analysis,normative analysis and comparative study,selected one important facet in the house demolition for studying,which is how to define the standard of public interest.House demolition essentially belongs to category of government's expropriation,namely the state exerts public power to take over the private properties forcibly.Therefore,it should be strictly restricted in three aspects:first the demolition must be consistent with the public interest purpose;second the demolition must observe the due process and third the demolition must be given just compensation.Among the three aspects,the first-line limitation of public interest purpose directly determines the legality and legitimacy,and therefore is the most important factor for consideration.Furthermore, public interest is also the major object studied in political studies and sociology,which is valuable in analyzing the formation of countries and exploring the foundation of the ruling class's legitimacy.Finally,as the basic concept in administrative law,public interest pervades the filed of administrative law and Administrative Procedural Law,so it is self-evident of the significance of the study on it.However,the importance of the problem is always proportional to the difficulty of finding solutions:as public interest is an uncertain legal concept with strong ambiguity and of multi-facets,it is very difficult to define it.As to the land expropriation and house demolition in our country,just as related laws and regulations lack the definition for the public interest,so disorder often occurred in this field.The Government abused its administrative power in name of public interest to seek personal profits or just obtain the so-called political achievement from time to time,which not only severely infringed on the citizen's private property right,but also intensified the social contradictions and ruined the public trust to the government and law. Actually,house demolition is a worldwide universal phenomenon,and the standard of public interest purpose is also defined in the related laws of most countries and regions,therefore,to study the public interest articles on the house demolition in other countries in terms of Comparative Law is of great reference value for the solution of the problem in our country.It is found that the definition of public interest abroad saw a development process from strict definition earlier by emphasizing "public use" on the subject's stand to extensive definition later by enhancing the development of overall society from the perspective of effectiveness.In addition,in the process of the public interest definition,the law circles abroad attached importance to the administrative institutes' judicial discretion,the improvement of public participation and exertion of the judicial organs' final verdict function.However,though the experience in foreign countries is certainly inspiring for us,to define public interest at home must still accord with the context in China since our country has the different situation featured by its own uniqueness of social democratic reality and the political institutions.Owing to strength of administrative power and long-term absence of the concept of democracy& rule of law,the public interest standard in the house demolition in our country has to be strictly defined,along with the reasonable distribution of power in legislative, administrative and judicial branches,especially restricting the abuses of administrative power.For the specific approaches,this thesis,following the way of starting from defining the subject,then discussing the criterion for the definition and finally defining the form,tries to propose the feasible way of defining the standard of public interest purpose in house demolition in our country,hoping to facilitate to some extent the theoretical studies and practical implementation of public interest standard in house demolition in our country.