Abstract

The paper aims at discussing what one can call the resilience of the right to housing in those cases – namely evictions – in which a clash between needs for housing and claims for the protection of property arises. The argument is developed through a multifaceted analysis, mostly but not only dedicated to the Italian legal framework. Scholarship, statutory law and case law are all taken into account in civil, criminal and administrative domains, as well as at the Italian and the European levels. In light of the elements of critical understanding emerging from such a discussion, the possibility to take the right to housing seriously – i.e. to question currently dominant views by enhancing the protection of basic human needs connected to housing, and more especially by building of the reference to vulnerability and proportionality – is eventually assessed.