Lorna Fox O'Mahony is Professor of Law at the University of Essex, UK.

It is difficult to overstate the everyday importance of home in law. Home provides the backdrop for our lives, and is often the scene or the subject of legal disputes. In addition, in recent decades there has been growing academic interest in the meaning of home, which has prompted empirical studies and theoretical exploration in a wide range of disciplines. Yet, while the authenticity of home as a social, psychological, cultural and emotional phenomenon has been recognised in other disciplines, it has not penetrated the legal domain, where the proposition that home can encapsulate meanings beyond the physical structure of the house, or the capital value it represents, continues to present conceptual difficulties. This book focuses on the competing interests of creditors who lend money against the security of the property and the occupiers who dwell in the property, in the context of possession actions. By mapping the concept of home as it has evolved in other disciplines against existing legal frameworks, Conceptualising Home examines the possibilities for developing a coherent concept of home in law.

Part I: Valuing Home: Theories, Laws and Policies
1 Conceptualising Home in Context
2 The Meaning of Home in Legal Analysis: The Creditor/Occupier Context
3 Balancing Creditors' Claims against 'Home' Interests
4 The Meaning of Home: A Conceptual Springboard
5 Home Ownership and the Meaning of Home
Part II: Locating the 'Home' Interest in Legal Frameworks
6 The Idea of 'Home' in Property Theory and Law
7 Valuing 'Family' in the Family Home
8 'Re-possessing Women': Gender and the Meanings of Home
9 Taking Account of Child Occupiers: from Rhetoric to Reality?
10 The Concept of Home in a Human Rights Framework