PROTECTION OF THE RIGHT TO HOUSING: CONSTITUTIONAL AND LEGAL PRINCIPLES AND COURT PRACTICE

Abstract

The article examines the issues of the current state of regulatory regulation of the right to housing, substantiates the complex nature of this right, the protection of which is possible only by joint means of constitutional, criminal, administrative, civil and housing law. The need for an urgent update of specialized housing legislation is emphasized, in particular the development and adoption of the Housing Code of Ukraine, which would correspond to the current conditions of the socio-economic and political development of our country. One of the most important tasks that needs to be solved in the new Housing Code of Ukraine is the problem of a terminological nature, which is expressed in the need to define the very concept of “housing”, the absence of which leads to violations and abuses by the public authorities. No less necessary is the problem of clearly regulating the concepts of “social housing” and “official housing”, which also require improvement of the mechanisms for their implementation and protection. The positions of the judiciary regarding the protection of the right to housing are analyzed on the basis of individual decisions of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine and the Supreme Court, which makes it possible to ascertain the approximation of national judicial ractice in this field to the relevant international standards. The article demonstrates that the constitutional-legal mechanism for the protection of the right to housing has a complex nature, which is why it cannot be reduced only to the protection of property rights by civil law means. We consider the right to housing one of the basic natural human rights, which consists in the ability to have one’s own space for a dignified existence, inviolable from other subjects. Based on the analysis of the latest trends in judicial practice in Ukraine, it has been proven that international, in particular, European standards have a significant influence on national judicial practice regarding the protection of the right to housing, as well as the active application of the principles of nondiscrimination, the rule of law and the priority of human rights over the interests of the state in this area.