On The Reform Of China's Agricultural Land Property Rights System

In recent years, poor adoption of the market principle to the property right of farmland has become a rigorous restriction on the development of agriculture, which, in turn, due to its sluggish progress, has seriously hindered the sustainable and healthy development of the national economy and borne roots for social instability together with the difficulty in increasing the income of farmers.There are only two kinds of land ownership in our country—state ownership and collective ownership. The main disadvantages of the collective ownership manifest themselves in the mutilated property right caused by state interference, indistinct definition of property right among collectives and no powerful collective organization to effectively exercise property right. Therefore, the author presents proposals on the explicit definition of property right and improvement of the functions of the property right as follows: the state requisition of collective land should be annulled;strict limitations should be set on the use of land for public welfare;transactions on land for commercial contraction should be conducted directly between collectives and developers and the enormous profit made by the state therefrom should be avoided;the land owned by counties and villagers should both be allocated to villages, which should be entitled to exercise the property right of farmland, to realize internalization;reform and improvement should be made on the organization of villages to strengthen their civil capacities and collective land as well as state land should be well defined.The creditor's right of the right to contract and manage land is adverse to both the protection of farmers' interest and the circulation of the property right of farmland and therefore reform in property right should be made thereon. Actually, since its birth, the system of contracting and managing of land has been undergoing continuous reforms, in the process of which the state and the local authorities have made great efforts and different implementing forms of the system of contracting and managing of land have emerged in succession. As a result, the property right has been greatly strengthened and the ContractingMethods of Farmland of PRC is the crystallization and reflection. In consideration of transaction costs, the author proposes to maintain the creditor's right of the right to contract and manage land in name and endow the property right in practice. Currently, the primary problem of the system of contracting and managing of land lies in unsmooth circulation—no mortgage, no inheritance and strict restriction on transference (trade). Hence, rigorous restriction on and prohibition of such important transaction forms impeded the formation of perfect land play market and posed difficulty for the market to optimize and distribute farmland, to the prejudice of effective exploitation of farmland. Owing to the insoluble contradiction between efficiency and equality, scholars divide themselves radically in the circulation of the property right of farmland during the enactment of Law of Property and Civil Code. Some scholars assert free circulation while some argue for prohibition of transference and mortgage. The author, enlightened by the system of two kinds of farmland, holds that the contracted land can be divided into land for social security and land for market circulation,the former functioning to guarantee the basic living of farmers and the latter used for free circulation. So far as the implementation of the reform is concerned, the author suggests inducing transformation instead of obligatory transformation made by the government. In regard to legislation, respect should be given to farmers in creation of systems;local authorities should be endowed with certain legislation and implementations of current diversified rights to contract and manage land should be protected by local legislation. Meanwhile, considering the fact that the system of property right of farmland is far from maturity and will undergo long-term transformation,only one mature law can not be counted upon to settle all issues as to the property right of farmland for good;instead, legislation in this respect should be made in a dynamic way. Furthermore, corresponding reformative measures should be taken;rehabilitating policies should be taken in agriculture;financing should be increased in agriculture;surplus farm labors should be transferred at a higher speed and the political status of fanners should be elevated. Only in mis way will the results of the institutional reform on the property right of farmland not be corroded.The right to contract and manage land, which is the most important and the key form of property right in the tenure of land in our rural areas, together with other forms of property right play a significant role in enhancing the utility value and use value of farmland. Theacademic circle divide themselves on the categories of the systems of farmland over the property of another and the author, based on the considerations that the right of the property owner of farmland should be expanded and that the property right system should be protected from rigidity, holds that over the property of another as varied as possible in form should be specified and that forms of property right at all times and in all the world should be drawn upon. On this basis, sound system of farmland over the property of another will be established, including right to contract and manage land, usufructuary right, pawning right, easement, cultivating right, subcontracting right, temporary borrowing right, hunting right, fishery right and mortgage right.