The Social Function of Property and Real Estate Abandonment: Between Property Law and Environmental Protection

This article explores the relationship between the social function of property and the abandonment of real estate, arguing that factual abandonment may amount to a form of ‘negligent non-use’ of property. Although the social function of property is both an external limitation on ownership and an affirmative social-obligation norm inherent in property itself, legal systems struggle to operationalise this or to address the negative externalities, particularly environmental harms, generated by factual abandonment. As existing regimes do not always sufficiently disincentivise harmful non-use, legal abandonment could be reconceptualised as a regulatory tool capable of promoting optimal use of unwanted resources.