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Property Law and Real Estate

University of Maine School of Law

Journal

Public trust doctrine

Articles 1 - 4 of 4

Full-Text Articles in Law

Defining Fishing, The Slippery Seaweed Slope, Ross V. Acadian Seaplants Ltd., Rebecca P. Totten Jun 2019

Defining Fishing, The Slippery Seaweed Slope, Ross V. Acadian Seaplants Ltd., Rebecca P. Totten

Ocean and Coastal Law Journal

In Maine, the intertidal zone has seen many disputes over its use, access, and property rights. Recently, in Ross v. Acadian Seaplants, Ltd., the Maine Supreme Judicial Court, sitting as the Law Court, held that rockweed seaweed in the intertidal zone is owned by the upland landowner and is not part of a public easement under the public trust doctrine. The Court held harvesting rockweed is not fishing. This case will impact private and public rights and also the balance between the State's environmental and economic interests. This Comment addresses the following points: first, the characteristics of rockweed and the …


Book Review: An Examination Of Maine's Public Beach Access, Ariel A. Hampton Jan 2019

Book Review: An Examination Of Maine's Public Beach Access, Ariel A. Hampton

Ocean and Coastal Law Journal

Many people assume that access rights to public resources are unwavering. Two Maine Supreme Judicial Court cases concerning limitations to public access to Maine beaches rebut this assumption. In his book, Maine's Beaches Are Public Property: The Bell Cases Must Be Reexamined, Professor Orlando E. Delogu challenges the modifications to public beach access that resulted from these two cases. This Review focuses on the historical and legal arguments that Professor Delogu presents as justification for the reversal of the Bell cases. Professor Delogu gives compelling reasons for his take on the Bell cases and why the State of Maine should …


Mcgarvey V. Whittredge: Continued Uncertainty In Maine's Intertidal Zone, Benjamin N. Donahue Oct 2017

Mcgarvey V. Whittredge: Continued Uncertainty In Maine's Intertidal Zone, Benjamin N. Donahue

Maine Law Review

In 2008, William McGarvey and Mary Klientop filed a declaratory judgment seeking a determination that their neighbor, Jonathan Bird, had no right to cross their intertidal land to reach the ocean to scuba dive. McGarvey and Kleintop own property that borders Passamaquoddy Bay in the Town of Eastport. As owners of oceanfront property in Maine, their title extends through the intertidal zone to low water mark in fee simple. The intertidal land they own also stretches in front of Bird’s property, bordering his property just below the high water mark. This configuration creates a strip that separates Jonathon Bird’s property …


Fishing, Fowling, And Dockominiums: Maine's Need For A New Approach To Public And Private Intertidal Rights, Agnieszka A. Pinette Apr 2017

Fishing, Fowling, And Dockominiums: Maine's Need For A New Approach To Public And Private Intertidal Rights, Agnieszka A. Pinette

Maine Law Review

In the sixteenth century, Queen Elizabeth recognized the public’s inalienable right to the sea. Despite the intuitive concept embodied in the Queen’s pronouncement, a centuries-old debate over the public’s right to the seashore continues to occupy the attention of Maine’s bar and bench. In 2011, for example, the Supreme Judicial Court of Maine, sitting as the Law Court, handed down a decision that maintains Maine’s prevailing judicial analytical framework for resolving property disputes in the intertidal zone. In McGarvey v. Whittredge, the plaintiffs, claiming ownership of the intertidal zone, brought an action in trespass and sought a declaratory judgment that …