Koldo Casla’s Appointment as UN Special Rapporteur Highlights New Research on Property, Housing and Social Rights

Dr Koldo Casla, Senior Lecturer at Essex Law School, has recently been appointed as United Nations Special Rapporteur on Adequate Housing. It brings renewed attention to a question that sits at the heart of his recent scholarship: How can the institution of property contribute to the satisfaction of the human right to housing?

That question sits at the centre of Casla’s new open access book, The Social Right to Property: Social Function and Human Rights (Edward Elgar, 2026). The book challenges the idea of property as an exclusivist and private entitlement, arguing instead that ownership must be understood in light of its social function and interpreted through the framework of human rights.

This is not simply an abstract intervention in property theory. The book engages directly with some of the tensions that shape contemporary housing debates: the relationship between ownership and social obligation, the role of the state in securing the conditions of human dignity, and the extent to which rights-based approaches can respond to inequality, exclusion and the privatisation of essential goods and services. 

Drawing on case studies from Africa, Europe and Latin America, Casla develops an account of property as a social right. In this account, property is reinterpreted as a legal institution that must be justified in relation to the needs of the community as well as the interests of owners. This shift matters particularly in the context of adequate housing, where legal systems are often required to mediate between strong proprietary claims and urgent social needs.

Casla argues that property in general, and private property in particular, is a socially created institution that confers power and is constituted by rules and regulations. This institution serves both individual and social functions. The resources that are owned are inherently limited and scarce, which can lead to various competing claims, both individual and collective. Proper regulation of property is necessary, grounded in a range of values that society aims to uphold through the institutions it creates. 

The timing of the book’s publication makes the appointment more than coincidental. As UN Special Rapporteur on Adequate Housing, Casla takes on a mandate shaped by disputes over evictions, and access to land, infrastructure and basic services. These issues raise deep legal and human rights questions about what property permits, what it protects and where its limits ought to lie when set against the claims of dignity, equality and social rights.

Seen in that light, The Social Right to Property does not simply accompany the appointment. It provides a way of thinking through the legal tensions that define the mandate itself. The book asks what it would mean to take seriously the idea that property serves a social function and how such an approach might reshape legal thinking on housing and the private provision of public services, including transport and energy. In doing so, it brings together property theory, comparative law and international human rights law in a way that is both ambitious and grounded.

In chapter 5 of the book, Casla develop a proposal to reinterpret property as a social right with a social function, with five components: a) property is a social right, b) some of the maximum available resources to satisfy social rights are privately owned, c) there is no free abusus under the social right to property (meaning one should have the right to eliminate or destroy the property they own), d) we should reconsider the role and price of compensation for public takings of property when the general interest is the fulfilment of social rights, and e) not all holdings and amounts of property are the same and deserve the same consideration and protection from human rights law.

In a recent interview, Casla reflects on the responsibilities of the role and the broader challenges facing the international human rights framework:

At a time when housing insecurity, inequality and pressure on human rights frameworks are intensifying across jurisdictions, Casla’s new book offers a particularly timely way to rethink the legal foundations of housing, and his appointment as UN Special Rapporteur underscores the urgency of those questions.

Further links

• University of Essex news story on Dr Casla’s appointment
  
• The Social Right to Property: Social Function and Human Rights (open access)