Difference Between China and Usa Land Use Policy

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A fundamental difference between how the United States and China apply environmental land use laws is the foundational governmental structure of each nation, with the United States' primary principle on individual rights and China’s primary principle on the state. In the United States, the governing structure is characterized by Abraham Lincoln’s often quoted line from the Gettysburg Address, “government of the people, by the people, and for the people.” This characterization aptly states some of the core principles of the U.S. Constitution, which as the Supreme Law of the Land underpins the laws of the country with a benchmark set of rules that change only in rare circumstances, e.g. when slavery was abolished by the Thirteenth Amendment. One of the core principles of the Constitution is the 5th Amendment right of private property free from government taking without just compensation. This principle applies to all levels of government in the United States, from the federal to the municipal, and is often strengthened by state and local governance. Built on the principles of free use of private property, and the seeming endless supply of land, the first zoning laws in the United States were not passed until 1916 in New York City.[i] Today, land use in the United States is limited by statutes at various levels of government, as well as by private lawsuits against landowners by citizens, co-owners of the land, or public officials.[ii] Private lawsuits include those to enforce covenants and other private contracts limiting use. Despite some principles aspects in current Chinese law that draw on over five thousand years of history of Chinese Culture, current legal principles standards in China are largely derived from the last sixty years of communist rule (since 1949). While the United States Constitution has had little modification over the past two
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