ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on summarising, analysing, and revealing the rationale behind the flexibility within the transfer system under Chinese property law. Currently, Chinese property law tends to function by tempering the rigidity of legal concepts. This tendency is rooted in substantive justice, i.e., fairness of consequences. The “standard” transfer model results from conceptualism and has a strong inclination towards certainty and clarity of property rights. The model is associated with a clear boundary between property and contract law. Under the influence of functionalism, the present legal system of transfer includes several intermediary cases straddling contract and property. The result is twofold: (1) several property rights are relative in that they are ineffective against certain third parties unless the statutory requirement is satisfied, and (2) several claims are made partially proprietary under the condition that other extra-statutory requirements are met. Therefore, the “contract–property line” is blurred in two directions, and an intermediary area emerges between contract and property. In this sense, the present transfer system under Chinese property law is flexible.
