A Study On The Legislative History Of Public Housing In Shanghai

After the liberation of Shanghai, the newly established People's Government took over the public property owned by its predecessor, war criminal, bureaucracy's capital along with the real estates owned by counterrevolutionary, disposed the real estates occupied by foreigners and set up the system of public housing. Afterwards, through two rounds of socialistic reform in private section of real estates in 1956 and 1958, People's Government achieved the transition to a new housing system in which public housing became the main type while the housing supply was dominated by welfare oriented distribution. When this kind of housing regime well performed its historical role, its defects were gradually revealed such as insufficient investment, poorly defined responsibilities, unsustainable supply and even the extended housing difficulties.To get out of this predicament, Shanghai took part in a countrywide and time consuming urban housing reform launched in 1980. The public housing regime in Shanghai experienced several substantial alterations at the same pace with"housing reform". In 1998, the welfare oriented housing distribution left the historical stage, but public housing in Shanghai were still remarkable in quantity and gave rise to various disputes. Furthermore, the new style indemnificatory housing coming up these years shares many characters with the former public housing system. This dissertation consists of the following six sections:Section One: Introduction. The concept and character of public housing subject to observation is summarized; the motivation of choosing this topic and the purpose of research is introduced and a review of relevant literature and other academic production is given in this section.Section Two: The development trace of public housing regime in Shanghai. In chronological order, this section introduces the background to the appearance of public housing, the establishment of public housing system immediately after the liberation of Shanghai, the development and changes in public housing system in Shanghai before and during the reform.Section Three: The changes in legislation on public housing in Shanghai. This is the pivot section of the dissertation with a substantial length. Five representational local regulations on public housing are selected and examined in chronological order from three aspects, namely, the background, the content and the remarks. These five regulations were the guideline to public housing in different periods in Shanghai and were regarded as the fundamental legislation in public housing realm during their respective valid periods.Section Four: An analysis of several typical civil cases involving public housing. Upon observation, cases of this kind were mainly found in disputes arising out of divorce, succession, right of inhabitancy and post sale of public housing. In this section, the writer shares his thoughts and solutions with regard to the determination of cases in this nature which are developed from personal understanding of the background of public housing and various state and municipal regulations and policies.Section Five: A comparison of the former public housing system and the newly established indemnificatory housing which is tenancy oriented and the perspective of the new regime. The writer takes the view that learning from experiences and lessons of public housing system in past decades will help to improve and perfect the present indemnificatory housing regime.The last section is a conclusion to the dissertation. Great changes in public housing were evidenced during the past half century in Shanghai. These changes were also a reflection of a developed and reformed society of China.