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; Jill Robbie; Hui Wang

doi:10.1016/j.ocecoaman.2026.108213

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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

2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ocecoaman.2026.108213

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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

Title: Beach law in the anthropocene
Authors: Timothy F. Smith - University of the Sunshine Coast
Justine Bell-James (Corresponding Author) - The University of Queensland
John Page - UNSW Sydney
Anja Scheffers - Southern Cross University
Giorgio Cataldo - University of Salento
Jennifer Corrin - The University of Queensland
Hossein Esmaeili - Flinders University
Miguel Frohlich - The University of Queensland
Adrienne Paul - Halliwells Lawyers (New Zealand)
Thomas Perroud - Université Panthéon-Assas (CERSA CNRS), France
Jill Robbie - University of Glasgow
Hui Wang - Shanghai Maritime University
Publication details: Ocean & Coastal Management, Vol.278, pp.1-6
Publisher: Elsevier Ltd
Date published: 2026
DOI: 10.1016/j.ocecoaman.2026.108213
ISSN: 1873-524X
Data Availability: No data was used for the research described in the article.
Organisation Unit: Australian Centre for Pacific Islands Research; Sustainability Research Cluster
Language: English
Record Identifier: 991230230102621
Output Type: Journal article

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