Right to urban planning, right to housing and right to the city: how public policies can turn social rights into subjective rights: considerations on the statute of the city and Campinas municipal master plan

Abstract

The right to the city is extremely diffuse, compounded by rights that are still under construction (ie, under historical affirmation): the right to housing and the right to urban planning have not been understood as subjective rights or as fundamental rights of immediate execution. Nevertheless, urban policies serve for turning social rights concrete, and as long as they have been concreted, they promote the right to the city. One of most efficient forms to promote social inclusion is by enforcing the right to adequate housing. There are various forms of public intervention in the city territory, including private spaces, forms that are legally identified as administrative restrictions, from limitations and servitudes to expropriation for social interests (habitation). Such forms of public intervention can only occur if in compliance with finalities specifically prescribed by law, especially by the Statute of the City and the Municipal Master Plan. This research will analyse the public policies performed by Campinas Secretary of Habitation since the edition of 2006 Master Plan, and will identify the extension of the subjective rights created by the promotion of such policies. In the terms of the hypothesis of this research, from the moment a public policy is defined, citizen becomes entitled to the promotion of said policy, which is more that be merely invested in a expectative of right. Citizen becomes to have right to the city in the terms defined and implemented by the public policies, a right that is subject to judicial protection.