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Beach Access: Public Right Or Public Privilege, John E. Jessup

Theses and Major Papers

All the coastal states of the U.S., particularly the more populous, have been and are struggling with the problem of obtaining public access to the nation's coastal beaches. There s a large volume of litigation and legislation devoted wholly or in part to mitigating the problem. It is the intent of this paper to examine some of the landmark court cases on the subject throughout the U.S. and also Federal legislation which has been proposed or enacted. Because the issue joined is so basic, i.e., public rights to use the beach vs. private property rights in that same beach, emotions …