Urbane Ungleichheit im Verfassungsrecht

Anna Katharina König analyses urban inequality as one of the central social issues of our time. Urban inequality has a significant constitutional dimension, as constitutions set fundamental parameters for the distribution of resources and the shaping of social order. From a comparative constitutional perspective, the author examines how German and South African constitutional law structure housing-related inequality and how constitutional courts address the resulting conflicts. While in Germany a defensive, property-based conception of fundamental rights prevails, tending to stabilise existing distributive arrangements, South Africa has developed a procedural understanding of fundamental rights that enables participatory processes of negotiation. Anna Katharina König demonstrates that this understanding can also be applied to property rights, thereby opening up new legal avenues for addressing urban inequality.