Wednesday, April 11, 2007

Eminent Domain in 1083

The first Chinese law regulating eminent domain was approved and announced in Yuanfeng 6th year of the Northern Song Dynasty (1083). Before the law, the common practice of the Chinese government is to compensate the evicted residents by allowing them a place in another location, plus waiving of taxes for a certain years. However, this method usually can't guarantee consistent living level especially for those originally live in a prosperous place. One emperor of Song, Tai Zong, lemented that although his palace was too narrow, but he had to resist the expansion plan being afraid of seeing people would have to move.

The 1083 law on eminent domain states that the government is responsible to compensate those evicted with comparable location as well as monetary reimbursement. The value of the compensation would be the average of the original purchase value and current accessed value. According to record, 120 families were moved on eminent domain in June of the same year. They were totally reimbursed at 20600 Min, or 171 Guan per family which is about $6,000 today's US dollars.

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