Bringing the Concept of Property as a Social Function into the Housing Debate: The Case of Portugal

Abstract

ABSTRACT The article discusses Léon Duguit’s concept of property as a social function. It shows the concept is gaining renewed worldwide interest in property theory and in wider public discussions on the current housing crisis. It examines the use of the concept in the political debates that accompanied the drafting of the first Housing Basic Law in Portugal in 2019. It analyses the various positions of interested groups, the parliamentary debate involving the elected parties and the Housing Basic Law itself. It shows that the political discussions replicate the opposition between property as a social function and the dominant modern liberal concept that perceives property as almost an absolute right. It also shows that the incorporation of the notion of social function in the Housing Basic Law has advanced a more balanced relation between the rights-obligations nexus of property that challenges the way property ownership is understood in the country.