HIST3505 Land Law and Custom in the New Territories

Content

The course, using the Great Qing Code, Colonial files, and judgments in courts as baisc references, introduces and discusses the changes of land ownership and succession in the New Territories from the Qing dynasty to the present.

Learning Outcomes

1. Land law and its origins in the New Territories

2. Ownership and succession of land in rural societies in the New Territories

1. History and Legends in the New Territories

2. Differences of Chinese city, town and village

3. Sub-soil and Top-soil Ownership of Land, and Land Deeds

4. Demarcation of the New Territories and the Lockhart Reports

5. Who Owned the Kowloon Walled City

6. Land Measurement and Registration, and the Block Crown Lease

7. Issue of the Wong Wai Tsak Tong on Cheung Chau Island

8. Ancestral Halls in the New Territories Ordinance (Cap 97)

9. Registration and Succession of Temples

10. New Rules for Adoption for Son

11. Right of Succession for Widows and Daughters

12. Emergence of Brownfield Sites

13. Small House Policy

Term Paper (50%)

Participation and Attendance (20%)

Tutorial (30%, group and individual performance being 15% and 15% respectively)

see Blackboard “Tutorial”.

A. Required Readings

1. History and Legends in the New Territories

Sung Hok-P’ang, “Legends and Stories of the New Territories,” Journal of the Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, vol. 13 (1973), pp. 111-129; vol. 14 (1974), pp. 160-185.

2. Differences of Chinese city, town and village

科大衛，＜佛山可以成鎮？明清時期中國城鄉身份的轉變＞，科大衛，《明清社會和禮儀》，北京：北京師範大學，2016年，第130-148頁。

3. Sub-soil and Top-soil Ownership of Land, and Land Deeds

Michael J. E. Palmer, “The Surface-Subsoil Form of Divided Ownership in Late Imperial China: Some Examples from the New Territories of Hong Kong,” Modern Asian Studies 21, 1 (1987), pp. 1-119.

4. Demarcation of the New Territories and the Lockhart Reports

《駱克先生香港殖民地展拓界址報告書》（駱克先生致殖民地部函），收入劉智鵬編，《拓展界址：英治新界早期歷史探索》，香港：中華書局，2010年，頁180-242。

5. Who Owned the Kowloon Walled City

魯金，《九龍城寨史話》，香港：三聯書店，1988年。

6. Land Measurement and Registration, and the Block Crown Lease

張瑞威，《香港土地的測量和登記（1898-1905）》（香港歷史檔案館「檔案存珍五十年」專題講座，2022年10月14日）https://www.grs.gov.hk/ws/online/50years/tc/sec3/activities.html

7. Issue of the Wong Wai Task Tong on Cheung Chau Island

《集體官契》-長洲

8. Ancestral Halls in the New Territories Ordinance (Cap 97)

Cap. 97 New Territories Ordinance  https://www.elegislation.gov.hk/hk/cap97

9. Registration and Succession of Temples

Holmes Welch, “Buddhist Organizations in Hong Kong,” Journal of Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, vol. 1 (1960-61), pp. 98-114.

10. New Rules for Adoption for Son

鄭小悠，＜清代“獨子兼祧”＞，《清史研究》，2015年5月（第2期），第55-64頁。

11. Right of Succession for Widows and Daughters

蘇耀宗，＜大清律例中須憑族長的意思—以廖英蘭案為例＞，《明清史集刊》第11卷（2015年3月），第227-260頁。

12. Emergence of Brownfield Sites

《棕須一變–香港棕地的過去、現在與未來》，香港：本土研究社編，2022年。

13. Small House Policy

Say H. Goo, “The small house policy and Tso and Tong land: Finding the interface between state and customary law in Hong Kong,” in Hualing Fu & John Gillespie (ed.), Resolving Land Disputes in East Asia, Cambridge University Press, 2014, pp. 374-391.

B. Recommended Readings

• 沈之奇，《大清律輯註》（上下），北京：法律出版社，2000年。
• G. Jamieson, Chinese Family and Commercial Law, Hong Kong: Man Yee Building, 1970.
• William C. Jones (transl.)., The Great Qing Code, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1994.
• 康熙《新安縣志》，1688年。
• 嘉慶《新安縣志》，1819年。
• 《粵東省例新纂》，1846年。
• 《粵東成案初編》，1828年。
• 《粵東成案初編補遺》，1828年。

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With each assignment, students will be required to submit a signed declaration that they are aware of these policies, regulations, guidelines and procedures.

• In the case of group projects, all members of the group should be asked to sign the declaration, each of whom is responsible and liable to disciplinary actions, irrespective of whether he/she has signed the declaration and whether he/she has contributed, directly or indirectly, to the problematic contents.
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The submission of a piece of work, or a part of a piece of work, for more than one purpose (e.g. to satisfy the requirements in two different courses) without declaration to this effect shall be regarded as having committed undeclared multiple submissions. It is common and acceptable to reuse a turn of phrase or a sentence or two from one’s own work; but wholesale reuse is problematic. In any case, agreement from the course teacher(s) concerned should be obtained prior to the submission of the piece of work.