Historical Analysis of the Chinese Legal System of Rural Land as a Residential lot

Abstract

The main function of China’s rural land as a residential lot regime is to ensure that peasants can build houses on these collective lands. Since the founding of New China, this regime has evolved from private ownership to collective ownership. With the change of the main paradox of Chinese society and the strengthening of integration between urban and rural areas, the regime for rural land as a residential lot, characterised by the separation of two rights (the right of ownership and the right of use has faced various difficulties, leading to the proposal of a reform known as «the separation of three rights». This article focuses on the development of the legal regime of rural land as a residential lot since 1949, analyses its evolution and existing problems, and puts forward the idea of responding to the dilemma of transferring rural land as a residential lot with «the legal right to lease».