The Evolving Law of Disputed Relocation: Constructing Inner-City Renewal Practices in Shanghai, 1990-2005

The forceful pursuit of inner-city renewal in Shanghai since the early 1990s has to a great extent achieved spatial modernization, but at the same time it has given rise to increasing conflicts over residential relocation. Using law as a prism through which to examine the dialectic relationship between renewal practices and disputed relocation, this article argues that the series of unprecedented enactments in law that have taken place during this period have both paved the way for real estate market expansion and been a significant source of relocation disputes in Shanghai. Rather than viewing law as simply given and determinate, the article traces the regulatory regime's codification of property practices as a means of actively responding to the requirements of the real estate market. Under large-scale renewal practices, residents' legal rights of 'return settlement' (huiban) in inner-city areas were largely denied in the early 1990s, before being effectively abolished by the adoption of monetary compensation for displacement in the 2000s. The evolving law on property practices has greatly shaped the process of disputed relocation while simultaneously posing a potential challenge to China's use of law for market-oriented development. Resume Depuis le debut des annees 1990, la renovation energique du centre-ville de Shanghai a largement reussi a moderniser l'espace mais, en meme temps, elle a suscite des conflits grandissants a propos des transferts de logement. Utilisant la loi comme prisme d'examen de la relation dialectique entre les pratiques de renovation et le relogement mis en cause, l'article preconise qu'a Shanghai, la serie sans precedent de lois promulguees durant cette periode a a la fois ouvert la voie a l'essor du marche immobilier et nourri une source de differends lies au relogement. Plutot que de voir la loi comme simplement fixe et definitive, ce travail revele dans la codification de la reglementation sur les pratiques de propriete, un moyen de repondre concretement aux exigences du marche immobilier. En vertu de pratiques de renovation a grande echelle, les droits juridiques des residents a 'un relogement sur place' (huiban) dans un quartier du centre-ville ont ete tres souvent refuses au debut des annees 1990, avant d'etre supprimes dans les faits via l'adoption d'une indemnisation financiere de demenagement dans les annees 2000. La loi evolutive sur les pratiques de propriete a considerablement modele le processus de relogement mis en cause, tout en interrogeant l'usage fait de la loi chinoise au benefice d'une orientation vers le marche.