The Meaning of Home: a chimerical concept or a legal challenge?

This article shall discuss the meanings of home which have evolved from interdisciplinary research. For the purposes of this discussion these values of home have been grouped into four broad categories: home as a physical structure, home as territory, home as a means of identity and self-identity for its occupiers, and home as a social and cultural phenomenon. Although this empirical and analytical research on the meaning of home to occupiers has taken an interdisciplinary approach, the findings of this body of research have not noticeably impacted on the legal domain, where little attention has been paid to the conceptual aspects of home. The object of this article is to consider whether the concept of home which has been developed in other disciplines could be usefully employed in a socio-legal context, in order to inform the major legal issues surrounding home, and facilitate the process of developing a meaningful concept of home in law.