'The issue of land expropriation draws increasing public and scholarly attention. China is of special interest due to its globally unprecedented pace of economic development and its roller-coaster speed of urbanization. Can China's constitutional law, rooted in its special socio-political circumstances, evolve alongside changing social norms and public expectations? Peng convincingly and authoritatively shows how the massive and pervasive rural land expropriation is well supported by China's constitutional design, and yet, has not been able to overcome major difficulties. Peng's analysis of how path dependency in legal and institutional evolution, the social embeddedness of property rights, and the complex dynamics between public and private interests interact, is relevant to any country's land system. I highly recommend this rich and pathbreaking book not only to those engaged in Chinese law and urbanization, but to scholars and policymakers concerned with the dilemmas posed by expropriation law and policy generally.' Rachelle Alterman, Technion, Israel Institute of Technology
1. Introduction; 2. A broken constitutional promise: diagnoses and prescriptions; 3. Limited reform: symptoms and causes; 4. Original constitutional takings clause: origin, meaning and purpose; 5. Theoretical foundations of land takings power: competing traditions and common legacy; 6. 1982 constitutional taking clause re-examined: new wine in an old bottle; 7. Rural land expropriation law in the reform era: a story of continuity; 8. Conclusion.