Towards a moral transformation of ownership: social obligations in European property law

In Western Europe, we primarily understand the right of ownership in terms of entitlements. However, the big challenges of our time (such as the climate crisis) require us to critically re-think this understanding to develop a more sustainable concept of ownership that emphasizes the obligations that are enshrined in the right of ownership. In this study, this claim is worked out on the basis of Catholic social teaching. Consequently, it is analysed to what extent social obligations are already recognized in European constitutions and how such obligations could be implemented in practice.