The urban renewal system has emerged as an antidote to solve the crisis of outdated urban development. The Urban Renewal Act has been implemented for 21 years in Taiwan since enacted in 1998. Even after amended nine times and revised comprehensively in January 30, 2019, the Act has incurred more than a few issues. The old buildings require demolishing in the process of urban renewal and the influence incurred from it on the change of property right of land owners, building owners, or other right holders are significant accordingly. This contributes to the writing of this thesis. While urban renewal can be carried out by either government or private agencies, this thesis concentrates mainly on commissioned urban renewal in private urban renewal.
The Urban Renewal Act is characteristic of both private law and public law. Under the theory of “concordance of the legal order”, this thesis examines the internal coordination of related provisions within this act and the external coordination of the Act with the basic principles of rights in rem, clarifies the concept of rights transfer and co-construction, and analyzes the legal nature of “constructive original ownership” of land and building for the owner after distribution through urban renewal. Further, the thesis explores the legal relationship of alteration to ownership, usufruct rights and collateral rights in urban renewal. In addition, according to the eight common principles of rights in rem in civil law, such as legality of rights in rem principle, and their respective legal nature, the thesis proposes that the Urban Renewal Act shall set forth the different rules to regulate ownership and other rights based on the discrepancy of their nature of rights in rem, and suggests the development of collateral rights in urban renewal in the future.
As the proverb goes, stones from other hills may serve to polish the jade of this one. This thesis, accordingly, applies the view of comparative law to explore the arrangement for the rights while involving rights transfer, such as land lease right and building lease right, in Urban Redevelopment Act of Japan. It can be used as a reference for the amendment of Taiwan Urban Renewal Act in the future. However, the legal relationships in the Urban Renewal Act are complex. In addition, the concepts of them are apt to be vague and argumentations within them are inaccuracy. This thesis presents various diagrams to illustrate the legal concepts and legal relationships in rights transfer, which is helpful in discussing various issues.