The Social Right to Property: Social Function and Human Rights

If property is the interests in things, why should society recognize those interests at all? The State is supposed to refrain from interfering with private property. But the State is also mandated, constitutionally and as a matter of international law, to preserve the environment and to respect, protect and fulfil social rights like housing, food, water, education, social security and health. Combining International Human Rights Law, Comparative Law and Property Theory, this book presents a proposal to reinterpret property as a social right. Property serves individual interests, but it must also serve the interests of the community, and when it does, it meets its social function. The meaning and contour of the institution of property ought to be defined democratically involving those who own and those who do not own. This requires making the institution of property conducive to the satisfaction of social rights in a free and fair society.