ABSTRACT
This article engages the dynamism of property concept within the parameters of the socio-legal construct of modern societies and against the backdrop of user rights cognisable under domestic and international legal regimes. The social malaise of homelessness culminating in squatting has resulted generally in forced evictions in many jurisdictions in the developing third world, and in the criminalisation of urban squatting in some others. The aggregate effect of these on the basic rights of persons and the implications for state responsibility in the provision of housing around the world are discussed. How these play out both in the outlook of the various legal responses generated and in the way some jurisdictions managed to turn squatters’ settlements around positively in the direction of socioeconomic growth and the general welfare of the people, are critical areas of engagement in this article. In all of these, the article explores the dynamism of the concept of property right in the contemporary world with useful lessons drawn there from.
Smith, Imran, From The Common Law Trespass to Squatter’s Right in Land: The Dynamics of Property Right in the Globalised World (November 5, 2023).
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