Improvement in the law on farmland transfer in China from a contract governance perspective

This article focuses on the improvement in the current law on farmland transfer in China from a contract governance perspective. The current regulation on farmland transfer in China features strong government control and suppressed private land rights. Whether in terms of the law or in practice, the participation of individual farmers in the transfer of their contracted farmland is not secured. In this research, the author argues that the design of new procedural rules contributes to better protection of individual farmer’s participation in farmland transfer. Moreover, the research on contract governance provides a great inspiration for the design of such procedural rules. In essence, this contract governance approach is a mix of top-down government regulation and bottom-up autonomy of private parties to the farmland transfer contract. It is hoped that a proper balance between private autonomy and the public regulation of farmland use can be struck under this new governance perspective. To some extent, a shift from the current regulatory system to a governance perspective in regulating farmland transfer helps to implement the existing rules and related policies in practice, on the one hand; on the other hand, it helps to formulate new rules governing certain behaviors of the parties involved.