Chinese Small Property

The Co-Evolution of Law and Social Norms

Shitong Qiao

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Year: 2017
• Print ISBN: 9781107176232
• eBook ISBN: 9781316814895
• Topic: Law
• Subtopic: Law Theory & Practice
• Index: Law

Small property houses provide living space to about eight million migrant workers, office space for start-ups, grassroots police stations and public schools; their contribution to the economic growth and urbanization of a city is immense. The interaction between the small property sector and the formal legal order has a long history and small property has become an established engine of social and legal change. Chinese Small Property presents vivid stories about how institutional entrepreneurs worked together to create an impersonal market outside of the formal legal system to support millions of transactions. Qiao uses an eleven-month fieldwork project in Shenzhen - China's first special economic zone that has grown to a mega city with over fifteen million people - to demonstrate this. A thorough and detailed investigation into small property rights in China, Chinese Small Property is an invaluable source of new information for students and scholars of the field.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half-title
• Title page
• Copyright information
• Table of contents
• List of Figures
• List of Tables
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• 1 The Evolution of Land Law in China: Partial Reform, Vested Interests, and Small Property
• 2 Planting Houses in Shenzhen
• 3 Small Property, Big Market: A Focal Point Explanation
• 4 Small Property, Adverse Possession, and Optional Law
• 5 Small Property in Transition: A Tale of Two Villages
• 6 All Quiet on the Judicial Front?
• Conclusion
• Appendix 1 Research Methods
• Appendix 2 Pictures of Small-Property Constructions in Shenzhen
• References
• Index