Abstract
Agricultural land rights form the cornerstone of China’s legal system concerning land. It has been over 40 years since the household contract responsibility system was introduced, with the separation of two rights at the core. After decades of profound changes, the system has exposed a number of problems concerning rural land such as modest yields, low utilization rate, and limited circulation. To address these challenges, the innovative concept of separating three rural land rights was put forth following the revision of the Rural Land Contracting Law in 2018 and the enactment of the Civil Code in 2021. This established a legal framework for rural land where collective ownership, contracting rights, and management rights are separated yet exist in parallel. However, due to insufficient legal practice and theoretical innovation before implementing this policy, several challenges have emerged, including unclear boundaries among the three rights, misalignment among economic collectives of farmers, lack of land management rights system and so on.The establishment of land management rights marks a shift in land use from being identity-based to contract-based. This paper aims to study the laws applicable to land management rights under this three-rights separation system and explore how to improve relevant system deficiencies. Using various methods such as jurisprudence, empirical research, historical research and sociology of law, the paper follows a research approach that includes historical review, current situation investigation, case analysis, concept analysis, problem identification, and solution proposal. It elaborates on and analyzes the historical evolution of the Separation of Three Rights System, reform practice cases, core concepts within the framework of the three-rights separation and legal theory construction of land management rights. Additionally, the paper also examines key legal issues of land management rights system within the framework and proposes targeted solutions to address these challenges.
The academic contribution of this paper lies primarily in its systematic examination of the practical background and legal difficulties of the Separation of Three Rights System. It systematically explains the structure of Three Rights, the legal theory construction of land management rights, and further analyzes the laws governing land management rights, particularly concerning transfer, registration, and mortgage, through trial case studies and reform practices, such as the land reform practice from Foshan perspective. The paper offers multi-dimensional law improvement suggestions, aiming to further support the improvement of the land management rights regime under the Separation of Three Rights System.
| Date of Award | 23 May 2025 |
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| Original language | Chinese (Simplified) |
| Awarding Institution |
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| Supervisor | Chunyan DING (Supervisor) |
Keywords
- Separation of Three Rights System
- land ownership right
- land contracting rights
- land management rights