Role of easements and public utility restrictions in safeguarding the natural values of coastal areas

Abstract

Safeguarding and enhancing the coastline is an objective of the General Basic Law for Public Policy on Soil, Spatial Planning and Urban Planning. A Coastal Border Management Plan contains, in addition to other elements, a plan of conditions, identifying the administrative easements and public utility restrictions in force. Permanent limitations imposed on the exercise of property rights or powers conferred on the administration, aiming at public interests, frame the concept of restriction of public utility. An administrative easement is also a restriction of public utility, although with its own characteristics. In doctrine, the most current generic notion of administrative easement is that of "a charge imposed on a property for the benefit of a thing, by virtue of its public utility", constructed from art. 1543 of the Portuguese Civil Code. As a rule, the constitution of administrative easements follows the Portuguese Code of Expropriations (art. 8 of Law No. 168/99, of 18 September). This communication seeks to highlight the role that easements and public utility restrictions can play in safeguarding the natural values of coastal areas, giving examples of these legal instruments.