Land Reform for Peace? Rwanda's 2005 Land Law in Context

A decade ago, Rwanda embarked on a major land reform programme. The government envisaged a new land law, supported by a land policy, and claimed that the new tenure system would contribute to enhancing food production, social equity and the prevention of conflict. The Land Law was finally passed in the summer of 2005. The UK Department for International Development (DFID) has taken on significant responsibility for monitoring the reform programme. This article provides a contextualized reading of the new Law. It argues that its emphasis on the obligation to consolidate fragmented family plots and register them will exacerbate social tension, but that some of the potential for social strife may be reduced because the state will allow flexibility in how the Land Law is implemented.     

我国《土地管理法》成长历程及修改完善

在改革开放和社会主义市场经济体制逐步确立的大背景下,我国的《土地管理法》于1986年颁布实施,并在1988年和1998年进行了两次修改。对《土地管理法》的几次重要修订使我国的土地管理步入了市场化轨道、加强了耕地保护、启动了保护农民权益的改革。但《土地管理法》在土地利用总体规划、耕地保护、土地产权制度、土地征用等方面仍存在着问题,应进一步修改完善。要从土地利用总体规划法律制度建设、建立耕地保护新机制、进一步完善土地产权制度、完善征地制度等方面对现行《土地管理法》进行改革。     

土地使用权转让法律规制的困境与出路

研究目的:分析当前土地使用权转让法律规制的困境,并探索其解决办法。研究方法:文义解释、目的解释与原理论证。研究结果:(1)刑法在规制土地使用权转让行为时需援引行政法的规定,在行政法规制密度过大的情况下容易导致非法转让、倒卖土地使用权罪的滥用,与民商法在违法性认定问题上也存在一定冲突;(2)基于文义解释、合宪分析和原理论证方法,不仅能准确界定刑法中土地使用权非法转让的具体范围,而且能消解不同部门法在违法性认定上的冲突。研究结论:《土地管理法》第七十四条和《刑法》第二百二十八条应作相应修改。     

Land use policy in China: Introduction

This themed issue of Land Use Policy builds mainly on papers presented at an international conference on ‘Land Use Issues and Policy in China under Rapid Rural and Urban Transformation’, convened by the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing, China, in October 2012. The conference set out to share and promote new scientific findings from a range of disciplines that advance research on land use policy in China. The contributions to this themed issue provide conceptual–theoretical and empirical takes on the topic, around four main areas of interest to both researchers and policymakers: nation-wide land use issues, the Sloping Land Conversion Program, land engineering and land use, and land use transitions. Various land use issues have been associated with rapid urban–rural transformations in China, giving rise to formulation of new policies directly affecting land use. However, these have contributed to new land use problems due to the nature of the policies and the difficulties in policy implementation constrained by the special ‘dual-track’ structure of urban–rural development in China. In view of this, this themed edition makes a compelling call for more systematic research into the making and implementation of China's land use policy. It also emphasizes the challenges for further research on land use policy in China.     

国土资源法律法规后评估实证研究

国土资源法律法规后评估,有利于推进科学立法、民主立法。基于此,文章通过对国土资源法律法规后评估具体内涵的界定,依据简洁性、系统性和可操作性原则以及三大评估标准,构建国土资源法律法规后评估指标体系,选择《农村土地承包经营纠纷调解仲裁法》为案例进行实地调研,运用模糊综合评价法进行定量分析。结果表明,《农村土地承包经营纠纷调解仲裁法》立法质量、实施过程和实施绩效良好。验证了国土资源法律法规后评估指标体系的科学性和后评估方法的适用性。     

Integrating decentralised land administration systems with traditional land governance institutions in Ghana: Policy and praxis

The aim of the Land Administration Project (LAP) policy reform for supporting the establishment of the Customary Land Secretariats (CLSs) is to formalise and strengthen customary land administration and management within the context of decentralised land administration. With the prospects of the CLSs becoming the legal local land administrative units, the paper assessed how traditional land governance institutions may have contributed to the decentralisation of land administration in Ghana. The research used case study strategy within the qualitative research paradigm and un-structured questionnaires were used to collect data. The analyses show that, simple land registries exist with traditional local governance institutions through the CLSs. The maintenance and effectiveness of this however depends on continuous improvement of records keeping, quality of office personnel and suitable office accommodation. This should be devoid of local power struggles among current and successive chiefs. Also, collaboration with public land sector agencies especially in areas of sharing information on rights, uses, disputes and preparation of planning layouts is paramount. These registries are mere extension of the state land administration apparatus as service units under the deconcentration of land administration powers. The paper concludes that the current policy focus on strengthening decentralised land administration through the CLSs may fail if attention is not given to the maintenance of the local registries. Revenue generation capacities of the CLSs need to be enhanced in order for them to recruit and maintain quality office staff, and acquire technical logistics. Decentralising land administration to the CLSs under the deconcentration of powers should be maintained in the interim because of the teething problems identified with this current system.     

浅析《城乡规划法》对土地利用规划的影响

研究目的：探讨《城乡规划法》对土地利用规划的影响,为新一轮土地利用总体规划的修编提供参考。研究思路：通过对新颁布的《城乡规划法》的解读,在与《城市规划法》对比的基础上,从城乡统筹规划、两规的衔接以及公众参与等角度,简要分析新法对现阶段土地利用规划的影响。研究结论：提出土地利用规划的编制应进一步强化城乡统筹观念,尽早构建和明晰全国规划体系、以法律形式明确界定两者的任务及衔接内容、政府部门权责的确定与落实等建议。     

论强制收回土地使用权的征收法规制

因公共利益需要强制收回国有土地使用权,实则属于对土地用益物权的征收,但却长期游离于征收法的规制之外.我国((物权法>将征收的客体局限于不动产所有权,<国有土地上房屋征收与补偿条例>也将收回国有土地使用权视为房屋征收的附带后果,不利于对强制收回土地使用权行为的规范.建议在<土地管理法>的修改和<征收征用法>的制定中,构建因公共利益需要强制收回土地使用权的准征收地位,将建设用地使用权等土地用益物权均纳入征收法制的保护之下.     

Is there decentralization in North Korea? Evidence and lessons from the sloping land management program 2004–2014

In the 1990s, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (North Korea) suffered from severe food shortages and large-scale deforestation, which triggered a stage of rural conservation reform. Since 2004, with support from the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), North Korea’s Ministry of Land and Environmental Protection (MoLEP) has implemented a Sloping Land Management Program (SLMP). The SLMP established sloping land user groups and granted these groups the right to use marginal land for agroforestry development. This devolution of land rights from state control onto local groups is a landmark in North Korea, and this decentralization initiative has now expanded to over eight counties to involve thousands of households. It has also led to the launch of a National Agroforestry Policy and Strategy. Drawing from both qualitative and quantitative data collected from 2008 to 2014, this paper documents the process and effects of the SLMP. It argues that the decentralization reform in land management has contributed to not only food security with increased food crop diversity and productivity, but also notably forest recovery through an expansion of tree plantations and agroforestry practices on degraded sloping lands. However, an insufficient power transfer in the form of a lack of timber rights granted to the local user groups has hampered the effectiveness of the SLMP. There are also institutional and geopolitical challenges that are limiting further scaling-up of land-use decentralization across the country. The policy implication calls for more international investment as well as national land-use policy reforms in order to promote and facilitate further decentralization of sloping land management and to secure greater use rights for sloping land user groups.     

进一步巩固与完善土地用途管制制度--徐州市新《土地管理法》实施情况调查分析

以徐州市为例,总结了新《土地管理法》实施以来,土地用途管制制度建设方面取得的成绩。结合实际,分析了新土地法实施中存在的主要问题。文章认为,为进一步巩固与完善土地用途管制制度、适应我国加入WTO后面临的新形势,新土地法个别条款需要修改。     

Resisting agrarian neoliberalism and authoritarianism: Struggles towards a progressive rural future in Mozambique

After nearly two and a half decades with a Land Law widely considered progressive, Mozambique is preparing to revise its legal framework for land. Land activists accuse the government of pursuing an authoritarian approach, excluding civil society participation, and falsifying public consultations. The revision would mark a major shift in Mozambique's land policy towards an even more neoliberal framework to allow the transfer of individual land titles. This turning point is a crucial moment for popular movements to mobilize against the consolidation of agrarian neoliberalism and fight for pro-poor land policy that benefits small-scale food producers and rural communities at large. While recognizing different rural and agrarian class formations and interests in Mozambique, I argue that embryonic forms of a cross-class alliance are becoming apparent. As deagrarianization proceeds, the National Union of Peasants (UNAC) plays a key role in mobilizing the rural poor — petty commodity producers, farm workers, fishermen, small agrarian capitalists, and agrarian civil society at large — using left-wing populism to oppose agrarian neoliberalism, which takes authoritarian forms.     

Effects of local land-use planning on development and disturbance in riparian areas

Land-use change can significantly affect the provision of ecosystem services. On a local scale, zoning laws and other land-use regulations are commonly used to influence land-use change, but their effectiveness is often unclear. We evaluate the effectiveness of local land-use planning in concentrating development and minimizing impacts in riparian areas. We use spatially-explicit land cover data from the USGS Land Cover Trends project to measure development and disturbance rates before and after implementation of Oregon’s land-use planning system. We apply a difference-in-difference estimator to address the problem of non-random assignment of regulations on the landscape. We find that land-use laws in Oregon have concentrated development inside of UGBs and lowered development rates in riparian areas. However, disturbance in riparian areas has increased inside of UGBs. Overall, our findings suggest that local land-use planning can be an effective tool for promoting the provision of non-market ecosystem services.     

Property rights,land use and the rural environment: A case for reform

English Law confers extensive land use rights as an integral attribute of property entitlements and land ownership. Property rights have, however, been subject to incremental reform by a number of different legal and policy instruments since 1945. Many have been introduced since the UK's accession to the European Community in 1972 and are derived from European Union environmental law, and from the law of the Common Agricultural Policy. Others derive from planning law and policy. There has, as a consequence, been an extensive modification to the allocation of land-based utility recognised in property rights, although the common law theory of property entitlements has remained unaffected. This paper considers the impact of these developments on property rights theory, and anticipates the further modifications to property concepts that will be required by a land use policy increasingly focussed on the promotion of environmental stewardship in the countryside. It makes the case for the introduction of a general duty of environmental stewardship as an attribute of property ownership in the law of England and Wales. It considers the contribution that this would make to the delivery of a stable and effective environmental policy for rural land use, and towards a recognition of the wider community interest in, and reliance upon, the sustainable management of land.     

农村土地承包经营权的功能转向、体系定位与法律保障——以新《农村土地承包法》为论证基础

新《农村土地承包法》贯彻三权分置政策,重构了土地承包经营权的主体制度、权能体系和流转体系,并强化了该权利的稳定性。修正后的土地承包经营权的身份属性和保障功能得以固化,并在某种程度上具有了自物权或所有权的性质,成为家庭承包制下集体土地所有权实现的重要机制。随着与集体土地所有权的内在关联的提升,土地承包经营权在新法上晋级为物权性土地经营权的母权。适应土地承包经营权的功能转向和属性变化,正在制定的民法典物权编应当进行科学的回应,一方面巩固农村土地承包法的修法成果,另一方面弥补其修法之不足。     

国内外土地复垦政策法规比较与借鉴

研究目的：借鉴国外土地复垦政策法规先进经验,为中国修订和完善《土地复垦条例》提出建议。研究方法：文献研究法,理论研究法。研究结果：中国现行的《土地复垦规定》及相关法律法规存在体系不完善、土地复垦责权利归属不明确以及复垦资金来源无保障等问题,无法从法律上、政策上解决实际工作中的难题,导致目前土地复垦工作进展缓慢;而国外土地复垦取得的丰硕成果正是得益于严格的土地复垦法律法规和完善的管理体制。研究结论：结合中国国情,借鉴美国、德国、加拿大、英国等国土地复垦先进经验,从完善法律体系、健全组织机构、建立标准体系、明确复垦资金渠道、建立激励机制和加强宣传教育等方面完善中国土地复垦政策法规。     

构建城乡土地自由流动的政策工具——以换地权益书保障土地要素返流的探索

研究目的:探索如何以换地权益书作为土地要素返流的保障手段,以期构建城乡土地自由流动的政策工具.研究方法:政策分析法和规范分析法.研究结果:当前统筹城乡发展中的土地要素流动存在诸多困境,不仅包括土地多重负担造成流动困难,还包括土地单向流动为主、缺乏双向流动的保障,以及土地规模化经营和流动中面临的空间和位置障碍.研究结论:要大胆创设新的政策工具,采用"换地权益书"的形式来构建土地要素自由流动的保障,这在当前既是必要的,也是可行的.     

佛山市农户土地承包经营权益保护研究

研究目的：探讨《物权法》颁布后农户土地承包经营权益的保护。研究方法：文献资料法,实地调查法。研究结果：对广东省佛山市南海、三水两区农户土地使用权流转和非农征地权益状况调查发现,当前在农户土地承包经营权物权保护上面临农村集体土地所有权人缺失导致行权主体错位、在非农征地过程中对承包经营权作为财产权的不尊重、土地流转不规范带来使用权权益保护不稳定。研究结论：《物权法》应当与《土地管理法》、《农业法》、《农村土地承包法》共同构成农户土地权益协调保障体系。     

浅论农村土地经营权流转的法规制度建设

农村土地承包经营权流转的法规制度建设当前尚不完备,必须继续加强和完善这方面相关法规制度的建设,其重点：一是继续完善土地经营权权能结构;二是实现强化土地承包经营权长期化与遏制承包土地调整的法制建设;三是制定针对土地经营权流转纠纷的仲裁与处置的相关法规;四是围绕“土地承包法”制定符合各地实际的地方法规与实施细则。     

2015年土地科学研究重点进展评述及2016年展望——土地管理领域分报告

研究目的:归纳分析2015年国内外土地管理领域的研究进展,展望研究趋势。研究方法:文献统计法。研究结果:2015年国外土地管理研究侧重于土地利用冲突及应对机制、土地权属效应、土地纠纷解决路径等方面,国内研究更多关注土地制度改革、土地市场管理与调控、不动产统一登记制度、自然资源资产管理、土地政策与法律,以及土地用途管制与耕地保护等方面。研究结论:2015年土地管理领域在土地管理体制机制建设等方面的研究进一步加强,针对改革实践中的热点问题研究比较突出,有价值的基础理论研究尚显薄弱;2016年将重点关注土地管理体制机制创新、农村土地制度改革、不动产统一登记制度、自然资源资产核算及管理体制、土地法学理论与实践等研究。     

Effects of land lease policy on changes in land use,mechanization and agricultural pollution

Land fragmentation has restrained the development of Chinese agriculture with the application of agricultural machinery. Meanwhile, agricultural pollution has caused serious problems with development. To address these problems, China's government proposed a new farmland lease policy and built larger farms beginning in 2013. However, changes in land fragmentation may also have unexpected problems for Chinese agriculture. This study investigated the effects of these changes on changes in land use, the application of machinery and agricultural pollution. We analyzed a developed area (in the fields of both agriculture and industry) and studied the decision-making habits of farmers in the area. An agent-based model was proposed with the same decision-making habits as in the real world. The results indicated that land lease increased agricultural profits very little in Jiangsu, China. Meanwhile, the application of land lease policy increased pollution. To alleviate pollution and increase profits, a new policy for large automatic protection machinery (i.e., large spraying machinery) should be introduced by governments simultaneous with land lease policy. Farmers could realize greater profits through the introduction of land lease policy and high-efficiency machinery. The sustainable development of agriculture in Jiangsu requires the integration of these government policies.