Justiciability os the social right to adequate housing

Abstract

This paper addresses the problem of enforceability of social rights at the judicial level and, in particular, the right to adequate housing. The intense and excludent urbanization process through which many countries have passed, including Brazil, has generated high levels of housing shortage and difficulty of access to urbanized and well located land. This reality produces a large demand for public policies for the realization of the right to adequate housing in its various parts. Because of the inability of the public policies to meet the entire population, some demands end up being constituted as judicial litigation, putting the judiciary on the need to make decisions regarding social rights. The issue is controversial, with various arguments against the justiciability of these rights and that somehow disqualify social rights as fundamental rights. In this sense, this paper promotes a review of the literature by putting forward to face the different positions.