POSSESSION X OWNERSHIP: AN ANALYSIS OF THE SOCIAL FUNCTION AND THE RIGHT TO HOUSING AS AN EXISTENTIAL MINIMUM

Abstract

This paper Search analyzes the relationship between possession and property in the Brazilian legal system, highlighting its impact on the social function of property and the right to housing as an existential minimum. The work uses a qualitative methodology, using articles that discuss the right to possession and its social function in urban areas. The social function, provided for in the Federal Constitution (art. 5, XXIII), conditions theexercise of property to collective purposes, such as balanced urban development and social justice (Bortolini, 2012). The study addresses the historical evolution of these institutions, from Roman law to their adaptations in Brazil, where inequality in access to land and exclusionary urbanization generate conflicts between possessors and owners. Decent housing, elevated to a fundamental right in 1988, is examined as part of the existential minimum, essential to human dignity (Gallo, 2012). The challenges of its implementation are also discussed, such as real estate speculation and the slow pace of land regularization, as well as the role of social movements in lobbying for inclusive policies (Waldman, 2010). It is concluded that harmonization between possession and property requires a balance between legal certainty and social justice, with mechanisms such as collective usucaption and expropriation-sanction, ensuring that property fulfills its social function and the right to housing is universalized.