Olympic ideal demolished: how forced evictions in China related to the 2008 Olympic Games are violating international law.

(12.) See INT'L OLYMPIC COMM., OLYMPIC CHARTER, at 9 (2004) [hereinafter OLYMPIC CHARTER], available at http://www.olympic.org/uk/organisation/missions/charter_uk.asp (identifying the six Fundamental Principles of Olympism). The Olympic Committee's goal is to "bull[d] a peaceful and better world by educating youth through sport practised in accordance with Olympism and its values." Id. at 10.

(13.) See id. at 8 (reflecting on the history of the modern Olympic Games that were first celebrated in Athens, Greece, in 1896).

(14.) Official Website of the Olympic Movement, supra note 11.

(15.) Official Website of the Olympic Movement, Beijing 2008: Election, http://www.olympic.org/uk/games/beijing/election_uk.asp (last visited Oct. 14, 2006). For a detailed description of the voting process, a list of member countries, and how they voted see id.

(16.) Id.

(17.) See INT'L OLYMPIC COMM., REPORT OF THE IOC EVALUATION COMMISSION FOR THE GAMES OF THE XXIX OLYMPIAD IN 2008, at 5 (2001), available at http://multimedia.olympic.org/pdf/en_report_299.pdf. The Commission considers technical factors such as legal issues, customs and immigration formalities, environmental protection and meteorology, finance, marketing, medical/health, security, accommodation, transport, technology, and communications and media services. Id. at 58-73.

(18.) Id. at 5.

(19.) Id.

(20.) OLYMPIC CHARTER, supra note 12, at 9.

(21.) Id.

(22.) See Universal Declaration of Human Rights, G.A. Res. 217A (III), at 74, art. 17, U.N. GAOR, 3d Sess., 1st plen. mtg., U.N. Doc. A/810 (Dec. 12, 1948) [hereinafter UDHR]; International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, G.A. res. 2200A (XXI), art. 1, 21 U.N. GAOR Sup. (No. 16), U.N. Doc. A/6316 (Dec. 16, 1966) [hereinafter ICESCR]; International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, art. 12, G.A. Res. 2200A (XXI), 21 U.N. GAOR Supp. (No. 16), U.N. Doc. A/6316 (Dec. 16, 1966) [hereinafter ICCPR].

(23.) OLYMPIC CHARTER, supra note 12, at 9. The Olympic Charter does not define "universal fundamental ethical principles." This Comment assumes "universal fundamental ethical principles" are equivalent to universal human rights found in international agreements.

(24.) One example of a fundamental element of Western property law is the "right to exclude," which includes exclusion of the government. See Kaiser Aetna v. United States, 444 U.S. 164, 179-80 (1979) C[T]he 'right to exclude,' so universally held to be a fundamental element of the property right, falls within th[e] category of interests that the Government cannot take without compensation." (footnote omitted)).

(25.) Jonas Alsen, An Introduction to Chinese Property Law, 20 MD. J. INT'L L. & TRADE 1, 5 (1996). The first Western property law ideology introduced in China was an adaptation of the German Civil Code, Das Burgerliches Gersetzbuch, or "BGB." Id.

(26.) Id.; see Karl Madrene Larson, Comment, A Lesson in Ingenuity: Chinese Farmers, The State, and The Reclamation of Farmland for Most Any Use, 7 PAC. RIM L. & POL'Y J. 831, 834 (1998) (explaining the Chinese government confiscated land from landlords and wealthy farmers through means of "persuasion, intimidation, and confiscation" so they could divide it among all farmers equally).

(27.) Alsen, supra note 25, at 43.

(28.) Collectivization is "a politico-economic system characterized by collective control [especially] over production and distribution of goods and services...." WEBSTER'S THIRD NEW INTERNATIONAL DICTIONARY 445 (Philip Babcock Gove ed., 1986).

(29.) Alsen, supra note 25, at 4344.

(30.) The Great Leap Forward was an economic program launched in 1958 that was "designed to expand the flow of food and raw materials from China's traditional, labor

intensive sector of the economy to fuel the growth of the capital-intensive industrial sector." David Ben Kay, Comment, The Patent Law of the People's Republic of China in Perspective, 33 UCLA L. REV. 331, 347 (1985).

(31.) A commune is a "community of people who share property and responsibility." BLACK'S LAW DICTIONARY 295 (Bryan Garner ed., 8th ed. 2004).

(32.) Larson, supra note 26, at 834.

(33.) Alsen, supra note 25, at 44.

(34.) Id. at 5.

(35.) China introduced an economic reform strategy in December of 1978, beginning with agricultural reform in the rural sector. Michele A. Wong, Comment, China's Direct Marketing Ban: A Case Study of China's Response to Capital-Based Social Networks, 11 PAC. RIM L. & POL'Y J 257, 260 (2002); see also Communique of the Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, 21 PEKING REV. 11 (Dec. 29, 1978) [hereinafter Communique] (on file with author).

(36.) See Communique, supra note 35, at 12-13.

(37.) Id. at 12.

(38.) "The PRC has had five constitutions;" the current constitution is the 1982 version. Alsen, supra note 25, at 7.

(39.) XIAN FA [Constitution] art. 10 (1982) (P.R.C.) (promulgated Dec. 4, 1982 by the Fifth National People's Congress of the P.R.C. at its Fifth Session); see also Elaine Sit, Comment, Broken Promises: The Status of Expropriated Property in the People's Republic of China, 3 ASIAN L.J. 111, 140 (1996) ("Not unexpectedly, [the 1982 constitution] explicitly set forth the principle that land in the cities was owned by the sate and land in rural and suburban areas was owned by collectives.").

(40.) XIAN FA art. 13 (1982) (P.R.C.); Sit, supra note 39, at 140-41.

(41.) Sit, supra note 39, at 141.

(42.) General Principles of Civil Law of the People's Republic of China (adopted by the Fourth Session of the Sixth Nat'l People's Cong., Apr. 12, 1986, effective Jan. 1, 1987) translated in, 52 LAW & CONTEMP. PROBS. 27-87 (Whitmore Gray & Harry Ruiheng Zheng trans.) (1989).

(43.) Id. art. 75; see also Sit, supra note 39, at 141.

(44.) Sit, supra note 39, at 141.

(45.) Land Administration Law of the People's Republic of China (promulgated by the Standing Comm. Nat'l People's Cong., Aug. 28, 1998, effective Jan. 1, 1999), ch. II, art. 13, translated at http://www.lawinfochina.com/dispecontent.asp?db=1&id=3673 (last visited Oct. 14, 2006).

(46.) Id. art. 16; see also Sit, supra note 39, at 141 (reviewing the provisions of the Land Administration Law of China).

(47.) Sit, supra, note 39, at 142; XIAN FA art. 10 (P.R.C) (amended 1988).

(48.) XIAN FA art. 10 (1982) (P.R.C.).

(49.) Alsen, supra note 25, at 12 n.45. Article 11 of the constitution, located between Article 10's ownership rights and Article 13's private property rights, protects the lawful rights and interests of the private sector of the economy. See XIAN FA arts. 10, 11 & 13 (1982) (P.R.C.).

(50.) XIAN FA art. 13 (1982) (P.R.C.).

(51.) Compare XIAN FA art. 10 (1982) (P.R.C.) with XIAN FA art. 13 (1982) (P.R.C.) (specifically noting that Article 10 declares the State and collectives own the land in China, whereas Article 13 only protects the citizen's right to "income, savings, houses, and other lawful property").

(52.) XIAN FA arts. 10, 11 & 13 (P.R.C.) (amended 2004); see also Frank Xianfeng Huang, The Path to Clarity: Development of Property Rights in China, 17 COLUM. J. ASIAN L. 191, 193 n.6 (2003-2004) (explaining the three amendments pertain to: sanctification of individual property rights, elevating the status of the nonpublic sector, and providing closer control over government expropriation of private property).

(53.) XIAN FA art. 13 (P.R.C.) (amended 2004); see also Frank Xianfeng Huang, supra note 52, at 193 ("All legal private properties of citizens, regardless of forms, are explicitly made inviolable.").

(54.) XIAN FA art. 11 (P.R.C.) (amended 2004); see also Frank Xianfeng Huang, supra note 52, at 193 (explaining, under the new constitutional amendments, nonpublic sectors of the economy are protected as well as "specifically encouraged and supported").

(55.) XIAN FA art. 10 (P.R.C.) (amended 2004) ("The State may, in the public interest and in accordance with the provisions of law, expropriate or requisition land for its use and shall make compensation for the land expropriated or requisitioned."); XIAN FA art. 13 (P.R.C.) (amended 2004) ("The State may, in the public interest and in accordance with law, expropriate or requisition private property for its use and shall make compensation for the private property expropriated or requisitioned."); see also Frank Xianfeng Huang, supra note 52, at 193 nn.9-10 (noting compensation must be made if the government either expropriates property with an ownership change or property use without ownership change).

(56.) Alsen, supra note 25, at 46.

(57.) See id (commenting on the vast amounts of land taken for housing construction as Chinese cities grew after new land regulations gave land value).

(58.) Technically, the government is not "taking" its citizens' land in the traditional Western sense of expropriating land owned by private individuals. In China, the State already "owns" the land in question. XIAN FA art. 10 (1982) (P.R.C.). Regardless of this pedagogically technical distinction, the Chinese government is essentially taking its citizens' right to use the land. This Comment does not suggest China adopt a private property system. See discussion of property rights in socialist societies infra Part IV. For ease of readability, when the Author refers to "takings" in China, she implies the broader understanding of property rights, including the right to use land.