At the invitation of the Institute of Sino-German Law of the College, Prof. Foroud Shirvani from the School of Law of University of Bonn gave a lecture on the Protection of Property Rights to the students on Xueyuanlu Campus on the evening of 27 Sept, 2023.

Deputy Director of the Institute Dr. Wu Yiyue moderated the lecture. Prof. Xie Libin, Associate Dean of the College, and Prof. Zhao Hong from the School of Law of CUPL were the commentators.

In conjunction with Article 14 of the German Basic Law on the right to property, Shirvani introduced in detail the guarantees and restrictions of property freedom in the German constitutional order. By comparing the Bürgerliches Gesetzbuch of property rights in the German constitution with those in the Basic Law, he pointed out that property rights in the German constitution cover, in principle, all legal property rights, including private equity ownership, intellectual property rights and so on. He said that taking the European Convention on Human Rights, the European Charter of Fundamental Rights and Article 14 of the German Basic Law as the legal coordinates, the right to property is both a freedom right and a basic economic right, a Base that guarantees personal freedom. According to Shirvani, as a basic right, property right is the subjective defense right of citizens to the state, and the existence of property is the priority.

In the comments section, Zhao further discussed with Shirvani on the legislative review of the content and restriction of property rights, the balance between private interests and public interests in the restriction of property rights, and the constitutional distinction between expropriation and administrative expropriation. Xie said that the content introduced by Shirvani fully combined with the practice of Germany and could bring the audiences many inspirations. According to the practice of expropriation in China’s law, Xie and Shirvani also had a deep exchange on the nature and scope of expropriation compensation.

At the end of the event, Wu once again thanked Shirvani, the guests and the students present. The lecture concluded successfully.