Rural Land Takings Law in Modern China Origin and Evolution

One of the most pressing issues in contemporary China is the massive rural land takings that have taken place at a scale unprecedented in human history. Expropriation of land has dispossessed and displaced millions for several decades, despite the protection of property rights in the Chinese constitution. Combining meticulous doctrinal analysis with in-depth historical investigation, Chun Peng tracks the origin and evolution of China's rural land takings law over the twentieth century and demonstrates an enduring tradition of land takings for state-led social transformation, under which the takings law is designed to be power-confirming. With changed socio-political circumstances and a new rights-respecting constitutional agenda, a rebalance of the law is now underway, but only within existing parameters. Peng provides a piercing analysis of how land has been used by the largest developing country in the world to develop itself, at what costs and where the future might be.

1. Introduction; 2. A broken constitutional promise: diagnoses and prescriptions; 3. Limited reform: symptoms and causes; 4. Original constitutional takings clause: origin, meaning and purpose; 5. Theoretical foundations of land takings power: competing traditions and common legacy; 6. 1982 constitutional taking clause re-examined: new wine in an old bottle; 7. Rural land expropriation law in the reform era: a story of continuity; 8. Conclusion.

Chun Peng is presently an assistant professor at Peking University Law School. He received his doctorate and master's degree in law from the University of Oxford and holds a double degree in law and economics from Peking University. He has published widely on Chinese constitutional law, administrative law and comparative law in English and Chinese. Besides scholarly work, he writes op-eds on China and the world at The Diplomat, China Daily and Caixin. He also provides consultancy to the Ministry of Land and Natural Resources and local governments on legal reforms in China.