In China, there is no unified official procedure for the rules on the registration of land-use rights and the ownership of property.

Among the actions taken included formal constitutional approval for private enterprise and the right to sell land-use rights.

New Rochelle officials have sued Mamaroneck, asserting that the law violated their city's constitutional and land-use rights.

For most tribal people, land-use rights traditionally derive simply from tribal membership.

Instead, its critics charge, by eliminating some longstanding tribal fishing, hunting and land-use rights, the policy only solidified the Indians' poverty.

However, in formalizing existing practice, individuals can possess a land-use right, which is defined in Chapter 10 of the law.

The law defines this land-use right in terms of the civil law concept of usufruct.

"The transfer of land-use rights is an important step in the reform of land use," said Ni Tianzhen, a deputy mayor.

After 1900, as the best farmland became shorter in supply, temporary land-use rights were negotiated with the chief to seal the deal.

But the new Governor, Masahide Ota, says he will not sign over the land-use rights anymore.