China Seminar | 8 February 2018

Hot Topics in Chinese (PRC) Property Law

Lawrence C. Foster

The real estate market in China has been “hot” since the beginning of the century! Professor Lawrence Foster will discuss a range of hot real estate topics including the forced evictions in January 2017 of tens of thousands immigrants and the poor (collectively known as the 低端人口 (lit. “the low-end population”) in Beijing; the use of eminent domain in China to take land from the poor and give it to the rich; building new islands in the South China Sea; the long march from private property, to state-owned property, and back to private property; attempts to rein in soaring housing prices (including the push for more rental housing and is there a bubble); and more! Lawrence C. Foster started to learn Chinese and made his first trip to Asia (Japan, Taiwan and Hong Kong) in the 1960s. His education includes a Ph.D. in Chinese language and literature and a law degree. Larry’s professional career includes a professorship of Chinese language and literature, a lawyer, and Dean and professor of the UH Law School. From 2005 to 2013, while living in Shanghai, Larry was a Senior Consultant at a major international Chinese law firm and a mentor for young Chinese lawyers. He has also been an affiliate professor at Beijing University’s School of Transnational Law in Shenzhen, China. Larry has served as an elected member of the governing council of the Inter-Pacific Bar Association and President of the international alumni association of the EWC. He was a member of Law Asia and the American Bar Association’s China Law Committee, as well as a trustee for Tokai University in Honolulu. Although retired from UH Law School, he is still teaching courses and doing legal training programs on legal writing and analysis in China.