Supreme People's Court: Consolidate the foundation of food security in all aspects and firmly guard the red line of cultivated land

CCTV Beijing, January 11 (Reporter Huang Yuling) On the 10th, the Supreme People's Court held a press conference to release 10 typical cases of protecting agricultural land in accordance with the law, showing the people's courts' adherence to the strictest cultivated land protection system and the measures and results of effectively safeguarding cultivated land safety, food security and ecological environment security.

The scene of the press conference (photo provided by the organizer)

Reduce illegal and criminal acts of illegal occupation of agricultural land from the source

Food security is the "greatest power of the country", and arable land is the lifeblood of grain production. Recently, the Land Management Law has been amended, special laws such as the Black Land Protection Law and the Food Security Law have been formulated to further improve the various systems and measures for the protection of agricultural land by the State, strengthen the responsibility of people's governments at all levels for the protection of cultivated land, consolidate the foundation of food security in all aspects, firmly guard the red line of 1.8 billion mu of cultivated land, and ensure that the Chinese people's rice bowl is firmly in their hands.

Wu Zhaoxiang, President of the Environmental Resources Division of the Supreme People's Court, said that the release of 10 typical cases of protecting agricultural land in accordance with the law is to give full play to the publicity, education and demonstration and leading role of typical cases, enhance the awareness of the rule of law that "everyone is responsible, and everyone is responsible for destruction" in protecting agricultural land, and actively promote the whole society to jointly protect cultivated land, the lifeblood of food production, and maintain the foundation of the sustainable development of the Chinese nation.

In recent years, land contracting and land contract payment have become one of the most common ways to increase the income of village collectives. In the process, some village collectives allowed illegal occupation of agricultural land for profit.

Wu Zhaoxiang said that in practice, some villagers' committees, villagers' groups and other grass-roots organizations have carried out the crime of allowing illegal occupation of agricultural land for profit. In the development of the rural economy, the issuance of land contracts and the collection of land contract fees are one of the most common ways to increase the income of village collectives and develop the rural economy. In particular, with the rapid economic and social development, the rural areas in some localities have intensified their efforts to attract investment, introduced social capital, and carried out diversified operations in the form of land circulation and leasing. However, due to the lack of a strong sense of law, some villagers' committees, villagers' groups, and other grass-roots organizations do not follow the provisions of land management laws and regulations to issue land contracts, arbitrarily change land use, and destroy agricultural land in order to collect high transfer fees, resulting in the problem of illegal occupation of agricultural land in the process of contracting land. Most of the land involved in the case was used for land transfer agreements in the "legal" name of seedling transplanting, agricultural breeding, etc., but in fact it was mostly used for non-agricultural purposes such as illegal quarrying, mining, soil mining, setting up enterprises, and building factories. Some villagers' committees, villagers' groups, and other grass-roots organizations have even taken the initiative to carry out criminal acts of destroying agricultural land in order to seek profits.

Article 11 of the Land Management Law of the Mainland stipulates that land owned by peasant collectives shall belong to village peasant collectives in accordance with the law and shall be operated and managed by village collective economic organizations or villagers' committees. Villagers' committees, villagers' groups, rural cooperatives and other grass-roots organizations are the main body of land management and management, and they are also the first responsible body for protecting agricultural land, and they are the first line of defense. It should be recognized that grassroots organizations such as villagers' committees and villagers' groups do not have the right to change the nature and use of land without authorization, even for the sake of collective interests.

Through the proper trial of relevant cases, the people's courts have further consolidated the management and protection responsibilities of villagers' committees, villagers' groups, villagers, and other owners and users of agricultural land, and have made efforts to reduce illegal and criminal acts of illegal occupation of agricultural land at the source. For example, Cases 1 and 4 are typical cases of villagers' committees and groups failing to fulfill their management responsibilities and even using land illegally. Such cases reflect the problem of villagers' committees, villagers' groups and other grassroots organizations failing to perform their duties in the protection and management of agricultural land, and also expose the lack of awareness of agricultural land protection and ecological civilization of grassroots organizations in some areas. We hope that by releasing such typical cases, we will sound the alarm for grassroots agricultural land management units and responsible personnel, guide them to perform their management responsibilities of rational use of land resources, protection and improvement of the ecological environment in accordance with the law, and further firmly establish the concept of guarding the red line of cultivated land protection and building a solid bottom line of food security.

Protecting agricultural land from being "non-agricultural" due to transfer

Agricultural land is not only an important cornerstone of agricultural production, but also an important element and resource for economic development. How to protect and realize the value of agricultural land in civil trials? Du Jun, vice president of the First Civil Division of the Supreme People's Court, gave a detailed introduction to this.

Du Jun said that the people's courts completely, accurately and comprehensively implement the new development concept, focus on serving and ensuring the comprehensive revitalization of the countryside, and fully protect the property rights and interests enjoyed by farmers and agricultural operators on agricultural land in accordance with the law. In disputes involving the transfer of land contract management rights and the circulation of land management rights, the lawful interests enjoyed by the parties are confirmed, supported, and protected in accordance with law, and the rational and effective allocation of land resources is promoted, and land interests are fully released.

In practice, the people's courts resolutely stop and deny the barrenness, loss of soil fertility, or even defaced and destruction of agricultural land rights caused by the transfer or transfer of agricultural land rights in various ways. The two cases of civil protection of agricultural land released this time (Case 4 and Case 5) fully reflect the basic position of civil trials to protect agricultural land from being "non-agricultural" and not illegally infringed upon due to circulation. The concept of civil justice embodied in these two cases is of good exemplary significance for standardizing and guiding the legal circulation and rational use of agricultural land by land management right holders. It is embodied in the following two aspects:

On the one hand, the people's courts shall order the termination of contracts for the unauthorized change of the use of agricultural land or the idle and abandoned agricultural land, so that the agricultural land can be restored to agricultural use in a timely manner and facilitate rational development and utilization. The lawfully established land contract and land operation right transfer contract are legally binding on the parties to the contract, and all parties shall perform in accordance with the contract. It is not only a violation of the contract but also a violation of the law for the lessee to change the use of land without authorization, use the leased land agreed to be used for agricultural planting for non-agricultural operation and construction, or the idle agricultural land resulting in land abandonment. After the contract is terminated, the corresponding suspension of performance and restoration of the original state are of great significance for implementing the policy of agricultural land protection, guiding the grassroots people, social organizations and relevant parties to enhance their enthusiasm and initiative in protecting agricultural land, building a solid barrier for the protection of agricultural land, and maintaining food security.

On the other hand, we should persist in activating the judiciary, actively extend the function of adjudication, and promote the protection of fine agricultural land. In the trial of cases involving disputes over the use of agricultural land, the people's courts should effectively avoid mechanical justice and avoid "following the procedure" to make a judgment, but adopt appropriate methods to promote the protection of agricultural land according to the specific circumstances and characteristics of the case. For example, in Case 4, in view of the reasons for the destruction of land and the necessity of timely restoration, the people's court promptly issued judicial recommendations to the relevant responsible units, prompting the adoption of effective measures such as strengthening publicity, regular inspections, and joint law enforcement to strengthen land care and supervision, and to carry out recultivation and replanting in a timely and serious manner. In Case 5, in view of the situation where the land has been abandoned and the lessee is unable to continue the operation, the people's court made full use of mediation to guide the parties to reach an agreement on the return of the land as soon as possible, the disposal of attachments on the ground, the adoption of feasible ways to offset the rent, and the reclamation and cultivation of the land, so as to promote the protection and utilization of agricultural land as soon as possible, minimize the losses of all parties, and achieve the organic unity of political, legal and social effects. In short, the people's courts insist on active justice and promote governance through one case, which is conducive to the protection of fine agricultural land.

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