The Law on coastal planning and integrated management of Galicia in the constitutional regime of attribution of competences between State and autonomous communities

Abstract

This paper analyses the distribution of competences between the Spanish State and its Autonomous Communities regarding coastal planning, taking the recent Law on Coastal Planning and Integrated Management of Galicia as a reference. Firstly, it explains how the coastline is conceived in the Spanish constitutional doctrine and the notion of territory and the "extraterritorial" competences of the Autonomous Communities. Special attention is paid to Constitutional Court ruling 149/1991, on the 1988 Coastal Law, and the evolution of this doctrine, especially in rulings 31/2010 and 18/2022. Finally, it examines the regulation of the new Galician Law and its innovations with respect to this system of competences.

Keywords:

Coastline, Competences, Maritime-terrestrial public domains, Coasts, Environment