The Property Law of the People's Republic of China was a repealed law of the People's Republic of China. The law was a

property law Property law is the area of law that governs the various forms of ownership in real property (land) and personal property. Property refers to legally protected claims to resources, such as land and personal property, including intellectual prope ...

adopted by the fifth session of the 10th National People's Congress on March 16, 2007 that went into effect on October 1, 2007. The law covers the creation, transfer, and ownership of property in the

mainland Mainland is defined as "relating to or forming the main part of a country or continent, not including the islands around it egardless of status under territorial jurisdiction by an entity" The term is often politically, economically and/or demogr ...

of the

People's Republic of China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

(PRC) and was part of an ongoing effort by the PRC to gradually develop a

civil code A civil code is a codification of private law relating to property law, property, family law, family, and law of obligations, obligations. A jurisdiction that has a civil code generally also has a code of civil procedure. In some jurisdiction ...

. It contained all aspects of property law in the PRC's legal system. The law was drafted quite differently from the usual legislative process in the PRC where laws are drafted behind closed doors, over 14,000 public submissions were considered for over a decade before the law was adopted and put into effect. In developing civil law in the PRC mainland, the PRC government has used the German Pandectist system of classification under which the property law corresponds to the law on

real right Ius in re, or jus in re, under civil law, more commonly referred to as a real right or right '' in rem'', is a right in property, known as an interest under common law. A real right vests in a person with respect to property, inherent in his relati ...

s, which is the term used in Chinese for the official name of the law. The Property Law was formally repealed by the

Civil Code A civil code is a codification of private law relating to property law, property, family law, family, and law of obligations, obligations. A jurisdiction that has a civil code generally also has a code of civil procedure. In some jurisdiction ...

in 2021.

Passage

The drafting of the law involved considerable controversy. The proposed bill caused quite a stir since it was first published in 2002, was subsequently deferred. Over 14,000 public submissions were considered for over a decade before the law was adopted and put into effect. The draft was released online for public comment after the bill’s third review in July 2005. Many in the Chinese legal community feared that creating a single law to cover both state property and private property would facilitate

privatization Privatization (rendered privatisation in British English) can mean several different things, most commonly referring to moving something from the public sector into the private sector. It is also sometimes used as a synonym for deregulation w ...

and

asset stripping Asset stripping refers to selling off a company's assets to improve returns for equity investors, often a financial investor, a "corporate raider", who takes over another company and then auctions off the acquired company's assets. The term is ge ...

of state-owned enterprises. The draft law was subject to a constitutional challenge. Legal scholars, notably Gong Xiantian of

Peking University Peking University (PKU) is a Public university, public Types of universities and colleges in China#By designated academic emphasis, university in Haidian, Beijing, China. It is affiliated with and funded by the Ministry of Education of the Peop ...

, argued that it violated the

constitutional A constitution is the aggregate of fundamental principles or established precedents that constitute the legal basis of a polity, organization or other type of entity, and commonly determines how that entity is to be governed. When these princ ...

characterization of the PRC as a

socialist state A socialist state, socialist republic, or socialist country is a sovereign state constitutionally dedicated to the establishment of socialism. This article is about states that refer to themselves as socialist states, and not specifically ...

. Gong called for a complete halt to the legislative process, arguing that by granting equal protection to public and private property, the draft unconstitutionally "departed from basic socialist principles". The law was originally scheduled to be adopted in 2005 but was removed from the legislative agenda following these objections. The final form of the law contains a number of additions to address these objections.New property law shakes up China
BBC News, Thursday, 8 March 2007, 13:10 GMT. It yet again failed in its reading at the fourth session of the 10th National People's Congress in 2006 because of disputes over its content. Before the bill's seventh review, NPC Standing Committee Chairman

Wu Bangguo Wu Bangguo (22 July 1941 – 8 October 2024) was a Chinese politician who served as the second-ranking member of the Politburo Standing Committee of the Chinese Communist Party from 2002 to 2012, and as Chairman of the Standing Committee of the ...

defended the constitutionality of the bill at a meeting of the NPCSC's Party members, including the provision affording equal protection to private property, at a meeting of the NPCSC’s Communist Party members. The bill finally went through its eighth reading in 2007. Wu's remarks were substantially incorporated into the bill’s official explanation presented to NPC delegates at the start of the eight review. On March 8, 2007, the Property Law was formally introduced at the NPC. Vice Chairman Wang Zhaoguo told the Congress that the law will "safeguard the fundamental interests of the people", and the law is an attempt at adapting to new "economic and social realities" in China. The law was adopted on March 16, the final day of the two-week session of congress, with the backing of 96.9% of the 2,889 legislators attending, with 2,799 for, 52 against, and 37 abstentions. In his final address to the 2007 Session, Chairman Wu Bangguo declared "the Private Property Law and the Corporate Taxation law are two of the most important laws in the new economic system of

Socialism with Chinese characteristics Socialism with Chinese characteristics (; ) is a set of political theories and policies of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) that are seen by their proponents as representing Marxism adapted to Chinese circumstances. The term was first establ ...

, we must attempt to learn these laws fully through various methods."

Description

The law contained all aspects of property law in the PRC's legal system. The Property Law contains 5 parts, 19 chapters and 247 articles. The parts deal with the following topics: Part One - General Provisions Part Two - Ownership Part Three - Usufructs Part Four - Security Interest in Property Part Five - Possession. The main purpose of the law is stated in Article 1. "This Law is enacted in accordance with the Constitution for the purpose of upholding the basic economic system of the State, maintaining the order of the socialist market economy, defining the attribution of things, giving play to the usefulness of things and protecting the property right of obligees." Article 9 states, "The creation, alteration, transfer or extinction of the property right shall become valid upon registration according to law; otherwise it shall not become valid, unless otherwise provided for by law. Registration of ownership of all the natural resources which are owned by the State in accordance with law may be dispensed with." The law covers all of the three property types within the People's Republic of China, which are

state State most commonly refers to: * State (polity), a centralized political organization that regulates law and society within a territory **Sovereign state, a sovereign polity in international law, commonly referred to as a country **Nation state, a ...

collective A collective is a group of entities that share or are motivated by at least one common issue or interest or work together to achieve a common objective. Collectives can differ from cooperatives in that they are not necessarily focused upon an e ...

, and

private Private or privates may refer to: Music * "In Private", by Dusty Springfield from the 1990 album ''Reputation'' * Private (band), a Denmark-based band * "Private" (Ryōko Hirosue song), from the 1999 album ''Private'', written and also recorded ...

which are defined in Chapter 5 of the law. Chapter 4, Article 40 of the law divides property rights into three types: ownership rights, use rights, and security rights. The law goes into detail about the legal rights associated with any of these three types. The law does not change the system of

land tenure In Common law#History, common law systems, land tenure, from the French verb "" means "to hold", is the legal regime in which land "owned" by an individual is possessed by someone else who is said to "hold" the land, based on an agreement betw ...

by which the state owns all land. However, in formalizing existing practice, individuals can possess a land-use right, which is defined in Chapter 10 of the law. The law defines this land-use right in terms of the civil law concept of

usufruct Usufruct () is a limited real right (or ''in rem'' right) found in civil law and mixed jurisdictions that unites the two property interests of ''usus'' and ''fructus'': * ''Usus'' (''use'', as in usage of or access to) is the right to use or en ...

Response

Some press reports have characterized this law as the first piece of legislation in the People's Republic of China to cover an individual's right to own private assets, although this is incorrect as the right to private property was written into the

Constitution of the People's Republic of China The Constitution of the People's Republic of China is the supreme law of the People's Republic of China (PRC). In September 1949, the first plenary session of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference adopted the Common Progr ...

in 2004. The amendment states "Citizens' lawful private property is inviolable." The Property Law was formally repealed by the

in 2021.

Notes

References

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External links