Kenna, Padraic --- "Introduction" [2018] ELECD 1485; in Kenna, Padraic; Nasarre-Aznar, Sergio; Sparkes, Peter; Schmid, U. Christoph (eds), "Loss of Homes and Evictions across Europe" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2018) 1

Book Title: Loss of Homes and Evictions across Europe

Editor(s): Kenna, Padraic; Nasarre-Aznar, Sergio; Sparkes, Peter; Schmid, U. Christoph

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN: 9781788116985

Section Title: Introduction

Author(s): Kenna, Padraic

Number of pages: 65

Extract:

Introduction Padraic Kenna 1. EVICTION Eviction from home strikes at the core of human rights and civilized society. The forced removal of people from their homes evokes a primordial response, related to the primary human need for shelter.1 All civilized societies have protected the homes of their inhabitants from arbitrary violations and forced eviction. Across the world, today, most countries have adopted international human rights standards to protect people and households from forced eviction from their homes.2 Often, these are based on the need to protect people's dignity and rights to habitation from powerful property owners or political forces. The concept of rights to respect for privacy, home and family life has emerged as a key legal principle. But inadequate public management of the control and use of property and private and public spaces, often leads to legally approved evictions. Indeed, lack of state regulation of property and spaces can facilitate illegal forced evictions. Even in developed European Union Member States, with constitutional and legislative protection, forced evictions are legally permitted in certain circumstances. Integrating housing rights protection into modern housing systems remains an undeveloped area of study.3 Today, protection from arbitrary eviction is often ascribed to the security of property ownership and property rights in liberal societies, and is finely balanced in law between occupiers and property owners in social democratic societies. It is, of course, regularly asserted that, 1 The need for shelter is recognized as a fundamental need. See AH Maslow, `Theory of ...