Serde Atalay

This paper offers an ideology critique of the European Court of Human Rights’ jurisprudence on housing. It argues that the court does not only operate within but actively sustains a capitalist understanding of housing. The paper thus exposes the role of European human rights law in configuring the relation of politics to the economy in the housing sphere. This is crucial given the fundamental role that housing plays in capitalism as the largest and most significant asset class today. Bringing together insights from ideology critique with the literature on the political economy of housing under capitalism, the article dissects the judicial tools commonly adopted by the court in its case law. These are (1) the determination of the definitional scope of protection, (2) the margin of appreciation, and (3) proportionality. By tracing the application of these tools across the court’s case law on access to housing, evictions, and rent control under Article 8, read in tandem with the case law under Article 1 of Protocol No. 1 to the European Convention on Human Rights, the article demonstrates that the court’s judgements undertake an ideological function. In doing so, it shows that the court’s treatment of housing is structured by a capitalist logic whereby the court (1) legitimates the use of housing as a means of profit while it simultaneously refuses to recognise a right of access to housing, (2) abstracts away the social relations of rent to the detriment of tenants, and (3) naturalises the protection of private property as common sense.