The Indigenization Of Hong Kong’s Adverse Possession From UK

As an important system of common law in Britain,adverse possession has been well merged with the principles of the UK’s traditional property law and indigenized characteristics.In the long-term legislation and legal practice,the form of adverse possession has seen magnificent transformation in accordance with the institutional shift from the old land tenure system to its modern land law counterpart.Deeply embedded in the whole legislation system,adverse possession shows the core of land law such as relativity of title which combine with publicity,taking possession f:irst,and its strong time concept.It has been strongly based on the traditional deed registration system and realized a great development through various cases trials.As the reform of the land registration system are preceding in UK,the use of adverse possession is gradually limited,and the necessity of the system setting is also disputed continuously with skepticism.In Hong Kong,the special colonial history has given the British property system great opportunity to be well applied and marked its "Hong Kong label".Since return to China,Hong Kong’s land operation system of its leasing system has not been changed.In such background,adverse possession play an important role in the law practice and enhance its local characteristics.With the adverse possession’s succession and development,some local issues also rises such as the convergence of the Basic Law,various ownership issues,problems when dealing with the land in the New Territories,and the land registration system reform.As the implementation of the land registration system has been put on agendas,Hong Kong’s adverse possession is also exploring its future development.The land regulation system in the Mainland China also use a mechanism identical to Hong Kong,which separate the usage from the ownership of land.However,this land system is constructed with the Chinese civil law system,resulting a narrow base for adverse possession and aquisitive prescription.Even so,the use of adverse possession in UK,Hong Kong and other revelant countries still provide some reference for us to tackle down several particular property rights issues.The Mainland land-law system can learn from the practice of Hong Kong to solve problems such as the settlement of some estate properties whose owners is long-lost or almost impossible to reach.