Logo image
Back
Beach law in the anthropocene
Journal article   Open access   Peer reviewed

Beach law in the anthropocene

Timothy F. Smith, Justine Bell-James, John Page, Anja Scheffers, Giorgio Cataldo, Jennifer Corrin, Hossein Esmaeili, Miguel Frohlich, Adrienne Paul, Thomas Perroud, …
Ocean & coastal management, Vol.278, pp.1-6
07/2026
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ocecoaman.2026.108213
Appears in  Recent Faculty of Science and Engineering Publications
pdf
Beach law in the anthropocene477.68 kBDownloadView
Published (Version of record) Open CC BY V4.0
url
Beach law in the anthropoceneView
Published (Version of record) Open CC BY V4.0

Related links

Metrics

1 Record Views

Abstract

There is an urgent need to respond to the challenges of the Anthropocene, including climate change and sea-level rise. However, responses can be challenged by legal and institutional frameworks. In the context of sea-level rise, ownership structures for beaches and coastal areas can either facilitate or hinder effective responses. In this paper, we analyse ownership laws for beaches and coastal areas across many of the world's legal traditions. We find that laws relating to the coast are dominated by a focus on the protection of private property rights and economic interests over that of environmental and Indigenous values, although public rights, such as access, present a more mixed picture, with arguably stronger protections in civil law jurisdictions. Legislators can redesign entrenched traditions through focusing on the systemic implications of their decisions. To enable the transformations required to address the challenges of the Anthropocene, reconstruction of what ‘ownership’ means (private and public) will need to be underpinned by a future-oriented set of legal principles based on notions of environmental justice.

Details

Logo image