Abstract: The problems of illegal land use attract a wide spread attention in China. The authors summarized and discussed the research results at home and abroad in recent years from three aspects of characteristic and situation, factor and driven mechanism, and influence and governance. The results showed that most of the existing studies were focused on the cause and influencing factors of illegal land use, and provided countermeasures based on the factors. Meanwhile, differences were also found among them. The researches in China paid attention to macroscopic analysis, while foreign literatures paid attention to microcosmic perspective. The research method in China mainly based on experience-based judgment and qualitative analysis, the application of measurement model only started in recent years, while case analysis, theoretical model building and analysis validation by micro-survey data were used in foreign literatures. At last, this paper discussed the trend of illegal land-use development in China and research interests in the future.