On Improving The System Of China's Collective Land Acquisition

With the development of urbanization in China, a large number of collective lands are expropriated for the construction of public interest. Even though land expropriation system have been improving continuously after many years of development, there are also many problems as far as Substantive and procedural aspects of the system are concerned, such as vaguely defined public interest, the low compensation standard, the irregular collection procedures and so on. These problems have brought about severe affection to the economic and social development of our country, which are incompatible with our country's "harmonious socialist" construction. On the basis of taking foreign land expropriation system into consideration, the author put forward some measures to our collective land acquisition system according to China's national conditions.The paper is divided into five parts in structure.The first part, the overview and legal analysis of collective land acquisition system in China. In this section, the author made a clear definition of the Collective Land Ownership firstly, including the legal provisions and characteristics of the Collective land ownership, in which the word "collective" has vague meaning. Secondly, the author gives a brief introduction to the System of Collective Land Acquisition. In the part, it includes the provisions and main elements of the Collective and Acquisition, and then the differences between land expropriation and land acquisition are discussed in the paper. On basis of analyzing the above two questions, the author also put forward the Collective Land Acquisition in China, which is supposed to be the main topic of the paper. The system includes the following procedures: land application program; draft programs of land acquisition; review and approval of the draft programs by relevant departments; declaration of the two programs: land acquisition, compensation and resettlement; Implement of land compensation and resettlement program.The second part, comparative analysis of the land expropriation system between China and other countries. Many countries (regions) in the world have enacted land acquisition system in their relevant laws, which have many similarities and differences. Other countries' regulations on the land expropriation system are an very useful references for China to improve its land acquisition system gradually. Land acquisition has different names in different countries, such as"maximum land right" in the United States, "compulsory purchase" in the exercise of English law and"collection" in France and Germany. It is called "Land Acquisition" in the laws of Japan, while"Crown land recycling" is used in Hong Kong. The author make a detailed presentation and conducted a comparative analysis on the land acquisition system in Japan, France, Britain, the United States, Germany and many other countries, in which some designs of the system play an inspiration and reference role on improving China's land acquisition system.The third part, problems existing in China's collective land acquisition system. In this section, the author elaborates on the problems China's collective land acquisition system has mainly from two aspects of substantive and procedural. Problems existing in the physical aspect include: the public interest has a vague and fuzzy concept in law; landless peasants live in difficult conditions, for compensation standard is too low and the ways of compensation are unreasonable. Problems existing in the procedural aspect include: the farmers whose land is collected have no right to be involved in the process of land acquisition; the program is carried out abstractly, which leads to many seriously illegal phenomenon; the farmers have no channels to express their interest; whether the action of acquisitions legal or not has not been included in the scope of judicial review. At the same time, the author explain the negative influence the above problems have done to our country, such as reduced agricultural land tenure, the breeding ground for instability in rural society and other issues.Part IV, thoughts on improving our collective land expropriation system. In this section, the author put forward specific system designs on perfecting the collective land acquisition system in China. Problems existing in the physical aspect include: narrowing the definition of the public interests and making adjudication by the judiciary when necessary; land requisition compensation standards should be improved so as to safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of farmers; to establish a land-for-security legal system. Problems existing in the procedural aspect include, such as establishing a sound regulation in which the participation of farmers in the land acquisition process is guaranteed; establishing the procedures endowing the original land owners with the right to get their land back in some certain circumstances; the land of the original owner a right of recovery procedures; improvement of judicial relief mechanisms to protect the farms rights.Part V, Conclusion. In this section, the author show a positive attitude to the progress we have made in the collective land acquisition system, but it is necessary for all concerned department to cooperate with each other if further improvement of the system is required. Finally, the author holds out high hope for perfecting the system.