The Judicial Mediation and Rights Dilemma of State-Society Relations: Eviction Mechanism and Resistance within Informal Settlements on Public-Owned Land

In recent years, there are more and more informal settlements on public-owned land evicted through law suit by public-owned land management agencies. This phenomenon shows that the government increasingly relied on justice, regarding it as a mechanism to deal with informal settlements. This tendency shows some kind of changes in the relationship between state and society. To understand the character, motivation and affection of informal settlement eviction, and explore how residents imagine and understand state, interpreting their own situation and relationships with other actors, this study analyzed changes in the institutional field of “occupied public-owned land” and anti-eviction action. This study analyzed the mechanism to deal with “occupied public-owned land”, separating the past 70 years to four stages: a) before 1982: legitimizing the occupied, b) 1982-1989: preparing to actively deal with the occupied, c) 1990-2001: expanding ""delegitimized excluding"" and densifying the management field, and d) after 2002: fastly expand the ""delegitimized excluding"". From 1945 to 2015, focus of the mechanism changes from legitimizing to delegitimized the occupied. It is effected by the financial situation of the state, democratization and civilizing project, relationship between departments in government, and infrastructural power. Besides, the financial and justice discourse also promotes the change. After 1990s, neo-liberalism regime formed in Taiwan gradually; at the same time, the state was facing the financial difficulties. Developmentalism mentality promoted the dominant framing structure which is constituted of the three, “development based on land-development”, ""property right"" and ""justice"". ""Delegitimized excluding"" emphasizes judicial intervention, strengthening private property rights and the logical distinction between ""legal / illegal"" Therefore, the role of state and the relationship between the state and people change to quasi-private. In addition, the strategy residents take and the thinking of their own situation when they are suffered by eviction, is another important aspect to examine ""the relationship between state and society"". Based on grounded theory, this study analyzed residents’ understanding and use of ""justice"", ""property"", and especially ""rights"", which present in anti-eviction actions, including personal interference, self-help action, social movements and participatory planning. These words or actions not only presents how residents understand their own situation, positioning themselves, but also means how they relocate to the state, government, and the relations between people and government. This study reveals that the anti-eviction actions is a process of deconstruction and re-constructed of people’s rights, and is a project against the change of state’s role and the relationship between state and society.