Lawyers team up in bid to urge legislators to tackle demolition issue
- Source: Global Times
- [08:43 December 27 2010]
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By Ge Lili
Forty lawyers have published a proposal on compensating and relocating people forced to move out of their property in a bid to push lawmakers into issuing a specific law on demolition, which does not currently exist.
Lawyers from Shengting Law Firm submitted the draft to the National People's Congress and Legislative Affairs Office (LAO) of the State Council, Beijing Times reported Sunday.
"We want to draw the lawmakers' attention to the difficulties of demolition," Yang Zaiming, the main writer of the draft, told the Global Times.
The draft added more specific provisions on negotiated relocation and compensating those forced to move from collectively owned land, important areas that are the cause of frequent disputes, which had been left out in the State Council ordinance on State-owned land.
Yang said that the State regulation observed the overall situation and the balance between urban development and people's livelihoods.
China does not have a specific law on demolition. A regulation on the administration of demolition and removal of urban houses was put into effect on November 1, 2001, but frequent disputes continue.
Scholars from Peking University came up with nine suggestions for the draft Saturday and will submit them to the LAO of the State Council.
Wang Cailiang, one of the scholars and a specialist on demolition law, told the Global Times that there are still various problems in the ordinance, including the absence of regulations on collectively owned land.
