The rural land rights of married-out women in mainland China
By : Eva Choy
The unfair distribution of government compensation for land acquisition encountered by “married-out women” (MOW) in rural villages in mainland China has attracted the attention of Dr Peter Chan Chi-hin, Assistant Professor at the School of Law.
MOW are women married to husbands living in another rural village or city. It is common for some to retain their household registration in their home village rather than transfer it to their husbands’ place of abode. The system of household registration was introduced in the 1950s as a means of managing the population.
Through his project “Gender Inequality in Chinese Courts: the Case of Married-Out Women and Their Rural Land Rights”, Dr Chan hopes to raise public awareness about MOW land rights and provide more research on related litigations.
One of the problems is that the mainland government makes monetary compensation to a village collective when it needs to acquire rural land for development. Under the law, the village collective distributes the compensation to its members.
“The courts didn’t even accept their cases. They considered that this issue should be dealt with by the administrative authority.” However, some village collectives refuse to distribute compensation to MOW even though their household registrations remain in their home villages. As a result, the women are stripped of their rights to a share of the state compensation, prompting the MOW to take legal action against the village collectives.
The rights of the MOW were not fully recognised 20 years ago. “The courts didn’t even accept their cases. They considered that this issue should be dealt with by the administrative authority rather than through civil litigation,” says Dr Chan, who has studied such cases since 2007 and found that there is no comprehensive empirical studies on MOW land rights in the academic sector outside mainland China.
“I hope my research can fill the gap,” he says.
Dr Peter Chan Chi-hinThe situation for the MOW began to improve in about 2014 and there is now increased transparency and a sense of accountability for the judiciary on the mainland. In fact, courts in the mainland now upload their judgements to the internet for public access.
In his MOW research project, Dr Chan reviewed 1,600 civil judgements published since 2009, looking for trends and patterns, and interviewed judges who have had experience in MOW disputes to test and confirm legal judgements. Furthermore, he conducted a series of focus groups with MOW litigants to better understand their experiences and difficulties during the litigation process, and the magnitude of the infringement of their rights.
Dr Chan’s study reveals that the number of civil lawsuits for disputes of MOW land rights is on the rise, with the success rate as high as 94% for the MOW. “Some judges are sympathetic towards the MOW and hope to uphold equality and the law to protect women’s property rights,” Dr Chan says.
Dr Chan’s research is funded by the 2017/18 Early Career Scheme under the University Grants Committee and was published in the December 2019 issue of Hastings Law Journal.