Asian Journal of Law and Society· 2026Q2
Shelter or Capital? Reconstructing the “Best Interests of the Ward” in Chinese Property Guardianship
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- 2026year
Short summary
Chinese courts are divided on whether guardians can sell a ward's property, with outcomes depending on property type, ward's sole home status, and proceeds destination, not just statutory benefit.
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Key points
- Chinese courts are evenly divided on disputes over guardians selling wards' property.
- Outcomes are influenced by property type, ward's sole home status, and proceeds destination.
- The findings reflect a conflict between statutory benefit, individual rights, and traditional household property norms.
- A proposed 'fiduciary floor' prioritizes the ward's subsistence in shelter.
AI-generated from the title and abstract; the full text is not read.
Abstract
Abstract The financialisation of household wealth has sharpened a tension between family collectivism and individual property rights in China, where Article 35 of the Civil Code permits a guardian to dispose of a ward’s property only for the ward’s benefit while the indigenous Tongju Gongcai tradition treats the household, rather than the individual, as the property-holding unit. Drawing on an original dataset of 58 contested disputes, this article shows that courts divide almost evenly on facts the standard cannot itself distinguish, but not randomly. Outcomes turn on antecedent features the statute does not name: the character of the property, whether the ward’s sole home is at stake, and the destination of the proceeds. The divergence reflects a collision of three institutional logics rather than doctrinal disorder. The article proposes a modest fiduciary floor anchored in the ward’s subsistence in shelter, while preserving space for household-property understandings above that floor.
The authors' abstract, as published at the source. Asian Journal of Law and Society, 2026 · DOI ↗
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Field: Law
LawSocial Sciences