萬國法律事務所

The Executive Yuan is proposing an amendment to the Land Expropriation Act, which would be submitted to the legislature for approval. One of the most significant Articles proposed is the amount of compensation to be received by landowners being calculated according to the market value, which is the “normal transaction price” of the land. In order to prevent land developers from building up the price of the land, the Local Government will evaluate and publish the transaction prices of the lands once every six months.

Last year, the Government’s expropriation of lands angered landowners and farmers. Several anti-land-expropriation protests occurred across Taiwan, including farmers staging an overnight protest before the Presidential Office on July 2010. A year later, the government announced the amendment to demonstrate the determination to reduce improper land expropriation and to respond to the public’s complaint. In a press conference held on August 24, 2011, President Ma Ying-Jeou told the press that this amendment can be seen as his Administration’s effort to defend the justice in land use and housing.

However, farmers, landowners and activists do not approve of the Government’s amendment. From their point of view, the revision should be emphasized on the due process of land expropriation, such as whether the expropriation is in the public’s interest, instead of the amount of compensation to be received. Therefore, the amendment proposed is still a controversial issue in Taiwan.