Housing and Social Control: Reassessing the Protection Asymmetries of Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights

This article explores how the right to respect one's home under Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights would apply in the context of housing and social control. After explaining the connections between social control, housing, and human rights, it analyzes the selected case law of the European Court of Human Rights on Article 8 in certain cases concerning housing with a view to understanding the protection asymmetries inherent to the provision, and what that would entail for the employment of social control in the sphere of housing. These protection asymmetries are identified between, first, the homeless/inadequately housed and those with a home, and second, with regard to the latter, between lawful occupiers and unlawful occupiers. The examination is conducted, first, by analyzing the Court's interpretation of the definitional scope of Article 8 and its exclusion, in principle, of the provision of housing therefrom, and second, by looking at the application of Article 8 in public eviction cases.