A Study Of The Conflicts Between Rural By-Laws And National Laws

Rural by-law, which embodies Chinese tradition of folk laws, is the basic approach for villagers to achieve self-management and self-service, and plays a complement role in the process of modern legal construction. However, with continuously improved villager’s autonomy system, villagers’growing awareness of autonomy and update level of self-government, there are more and more by-laws in rural areas of China. As a result, the conflicts between rural by-laws and national laws arise. The paper will, with some allocation plans of the compensation during land acquisitions in Changsha County, Hunan Province as the object, study the conflicts in the perspective of rural women’s land rights protection.During the study, comparative analysis and social studies have been used. Combining the rural by-laws on the allocation of land compensation and some typical cases delivered by People’s Court of Changsha County, the paper will conduct a comparative study of relevant national laws and rural by-laws, try to present the forms of the conflicts and figure out their reasons. At last, inspired by the correspondent American laws, especially the New York Village Law, the paper will put forward some suggestions to solve the conflicts between rural by-laws and national laws in China.The main contents of the paper are divided into four chapters. Chapter one is an overview of the basic knowledge of Changsha County and some important concepts of the paper, like rural by-laws. In the second chapter, through some typical cases rendered by People’s Court of Changsha County, the paper analyzes two forms of the conflicts:rural by-laws circumventing national laws and by-laws refusing to implement court’s civil rulings. Chapter three combines the specific cases and the actual situation of Changsha County to analyze the reasons of the conflicts from the following aspects:makers of two different rules, national legislation, administrative review, judicial remedies, and local customs and practices. In the forth chapter, the paper discusses the useful references of relevant rules in the New York Village Law first, and put forward some suggestions on how to solve the conflicts and reconcile rural by-laws and national laws.