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

(157.) Arambulo, supra note 148, at 114. The International Bill of Human Rights also technically includes the Optional Protocol of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. Jiangyu Wang, supra note 7, at 138. The Optional Protocol can be found at Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights: Aiming at the Abolition of the Death Penalty, G.A. Res. 44/128, at 207, U.N. GAOR, 44th Sess., Supp. No. 49, U.N. Doc. A/44/49 (Dec. 1989).

(158.) Jiangyu Wang, supra note 7, at 138.

(159.) Id. at 143.

(160.) INFO. OFFICE OF THE STATE COUNCIL 2000, supra note 153, pt. VII, para. 2; Davis, supra note 8, at 18.

(161.) ICESCR, supra note 22, art. 11.

(162.) Jiangyu Wang, supra note 7, at 143.

(163.) INFO. OFFICE OF THE STATE COUNCIL 2004, supra note 153, pt. VII, para. 2 (internal quotations omitted).

(164.) Jiangyu Wang, supra note 7, at 143.

(165.) ICCPR, supra note 22, art. 1, para. 2.

(166.) Id. art. 12, para. 1.

(167.) The Universal Declaration of Human Rights does not include the word "unlawful." UDHR, supra note 22.

(168.) ICCPR, supra note 22, art. 17, para. 1.

(169.) UDHR, supra note 22, art. 17.

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

(171.) A freehold is "[a]n estate in land held in fee simple, in fee tail, or for term of life." BLACK'S LAW DICTIONARY 690 (Bryan Garner ed., 8th ed. 2004). A fee simple, for example, is "[a]n interest in land that, being the broadest property interest allowed by law, endures until the current holder dies without heirs." Id. at 648. A title, in turn, is defined as the "[l]egal evidence of a person's ownership rights in property." Id. at 1522.

(172.) See UDHR, supra note 22, art. 17 (not requiring a particular property regime). Other scholars argue not only that a State without a private property system will fail to comply with internationally accepted human rights, but moreover will ensure their own collapse. See, e.g., Richard Pipes, Human Nature and the Fall of Communism, AM. ACAD. ARTS & SCI. BULL. 38, 39 (Jan. 1996) CA government that monopolizes a nation's wealth and prohibits its citizens from accumulating any property beyond mere personal effects ensures its own destruction.").

(173.) See supra notes 120-26 and accompanying text.

(174.) For a detailed discussion of the various problems in China that render the 2004 amendments and other formal rules unenforceable see Chenglin Liu, supra note 72, at 6-15. "The deep-rooted bias against private ownership, a weak judiciary, the unrestricted power of the government and widespread corruption problems are among" the problems. Id. at 6.

(175.) U.N. Econ. & Soc. Council [ECOSOC], Comm. on Econ., Soc. and Cultural Rights [CESCR], Implementation of the Int'l Covenant on Econ., Soc. and Cultural Rights, General Comment 7: The right to adequate housing (Art. 11 (1) of the Covenant), para. 4, U.N. Doc. E/C.12/1997/4 (May 20, 1997) [hereinafter CESCR, General Comment 7].

(176.) The Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights is entrusted with authoritatively interpreting the ICESCR. Davis, supra note 8, at 18.

(177.) Id. (quoting CESCR, General Comment 4: The right to adequate housing (Art. 11 (1) of the Covenant), U.N. Doc. E/1992/23 (Dec. 13, 1991)).

(178.) Id. at 18 (quoting CESCR, General Comment 7, supra note 175).

(179.) U.N. Comm. on Human Rights, Res. 1993/77, para. 1, U.N. Doc. E/1993/23 (Mar. 10, 1993); see also Office of the High Comm'r for Human Rights, Res. 1998/9, U.N. Doc. E/CNA/SUB.2/1998/L.11 (Aug. 20, 1998) (declaring "the practice of forced eviction constitutes a gross violation of a broad range of human rights").

(180.) ICCPR, supra note 22, art. 12, para. 1.

(181.) See Spencer Anderson, Olympic construction in Beijing leaves thousands homeless: Advance notice and compensation invisible, METROVOX.CO.UK, Mar. 10, 2005, available at http://cgmg.jour.city.ac.uk/news.php?story=129 ("The demolition and relocation of homes to make way for the city's Olympic village has been occurring at a staggering rate, leaving hundreds of thousands of Chinese people homeless and frequently without sufficient compensation.").

(182.) Id. at 13-15.

(183.) Id. at 14 (brackets in original).

(184.) Id. at 15.

(185.) Id. at 15 n.36.

(186.) ICCPR, supra note 22, art. 1, para. 2.

(187.) See, e.g., Will China's Government Uphold the Olympic Ideal?, supra note 63 (recounting a Beijing resident's imprisonment after protesting the razing of his two restaurants).

(188.) Feng Changle, Forced Demolition: The Story of Young Chang Liang's Life, THE EPOCH TIMES, Sep. 1, 2004, available at http://english.epochtimes.com/news/4-9-1/23080.html (detailing the numerous tragedies befalling a young Chinese citizen).

(189.) Id.

(190.) Davis, supra note 8, at 14.

(191.) Black's defines arbitrary as "[d]epending on individual discretion" or "founded on prejudice or preference rather than on reason or fact." BLACK'S LAW DICTIONARY 112 (Bryan Garner ed., 8th ed. 2004).

(192.) UDHR, supra note 22, art. 12; ICCPR, supra note 22, art. 17, para. 1.

(193.) See Davis, supra note 8, at 12.

(194.) Collecting the amount of land necessary to construct sports venues displaces scores of people. See Cynthia Carr, Life in the Footprint: Voices of the Fading Community in the Shadow of the Atlantic Yards, VILLAGE VOICE, Aug. 1, 2006, available at http://www.villagevoice.com/nyclife/0631,carr,74022,15.html (revealing the proposed 22-acre Atlantic Yards project for the NBA Nets affected 463 residents (renters and owners), 400 people in a homeless shelter, and many small businesses with a total of 225 employees).

(195.) See Davis, supra note 8, at 14.

(196.) Id. at 12.

(197.) Id. at 15.

(198.) Id.

(199.) Id. at 15-16.

(200.) Id. at 16.

(201.) ICCPR, supra note 22, art. 17, para. 1.

(202.) Davis, supra note 8, at 21.

(203.) Id. at 18.

(204.) Id. at 20-21; CESCR, General Comment 7, supra note 175, para. 16.

(205.) Davis, supra note 8, at 21.

(206.) Id.

(207.) For the proposition that "fundamental institutional changes are needed in order to establish a functional body of property laws in China" and a detailed recommendation see Chenglin Liu, supra note 72, at 3.

(208.) Cf. Leigh Hornbeck, Tree-cutting Developer Faces $100,000 Fine; Under Stop-work Order Owner Can't Sell 1,400-acre Lake George Tract, THE TIMES UNION, Feb. 23, 2006, at B1 (reporting a developer was fined $100,000 for environmental violations).

(209.) Davis, supra note 8, at 12. Human Rights Watch reports extreme cases where residents return home from work to find "demolish" written on the walls of their houses, or worse, their homes have already been destroyed. Id.

(210.) Bede Sheppard, Condemned Communities: Forced Eviction in Jakarta, HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH VOL. 18, NO. 10(C), Sept. 2006, at 102, available at http://hrw.org/reports/2006/indonesia0906/indonesia0906web.pdf (suggesting if local authorities assess the impact of eviction they may "determine whether there is an alternative means of achieving the public order goal which would cause less harm to the ... evicted individuals").

(211.) Requiring specific description of individual lots or areas would decrease the likelihood of developers making "mistakes" and razing more property than is actually approved or necessary.

(212.) Davis, supra note 8, at 12-13.

(213.) The existence of a system to contest the validity of governmental taking does not preclude forced evictions. See, e.g., Kelo v. City of New London, 545 U.S. 469 (2005) (holding governmental taking to promote economic development may be justified as "public use").

(214.) Much room exists for arbitrary decisions in determining what a legitimate "public use" is; however, that debate is outside the scope of this Comment. Chenglin Liu argues despite the 2004 constitutional amendments requiring a "public purpose" to seize private property, local Chinese governments over-stretch the scope of the doctrine approving every conceivable project. Chenglin Liu, supra note 72, at 7.

(215.) Chenglin Liu, supra note 72, at 16. "Fair market value should be 'the amount of money which a purchaser willing, but not obliged, to buy the property would pay to an owner willing, but not obliged, to sell it.' taking into consideration the other." Id.

(216.) Yardley, supra note 62, at A8.

(217.) Id.

Martha M. Hopkins, J.D., University of Houston Law Center, expected 2007; B.S. in Political Science, Texas A&M University, 2003. The Author would like to thank Professor Chenglin Liu for his research assistance, the Houston Journal of International Law members for their excellent work, her family for their endless faith and encouragement, and those particular individuals who passed up much more exciting plans to give her desired feedback one last time. This Comment received the 2006 Baker Botts, L.L.P. Writing Award for an Outstanding Comment on a Topic in International Law.