The Law of Property (Wuquan fa) and the evolving system of Property Rights in China

Abstract

The enactment of the Law of Property (LP) 2007 in China has been hailed as a milestone in the development of contemporary Chinese law. This chapter attempts to understand some of the key concepts and provisions in the LP in the context of the evolving Chinese law relating to property rights, the changing economic system, and from the perspective of comparative law. It suggests that the conceptual framework employed by the LP has largely been borrowed from the continental European, particularly the German, legal tradition, although there are also vestiges of legal ideas transplanted from the former Soviet Union. This chapter also demonstrates that the three main types of 'yongyi wuquan' (Nutzungsrechte in German) provided for in the LP are to varying degrees private property rights, and 'collective ownership' in respect of rural land also contains elements of private property.