TITULARIDAD Y GESTIÓN DE LAS RIBERAS DE LOS RÍOS: EL PROBLEMA DE LAS «RIBERAS ESTIMADAS» CON ARREGLO A LA LEY DE 18 DE OCTUBRE DE 1941

Authors

  • LUIS FRANCISCO BIENDICHO GRACIA e IGNACI

Keywords:

riverbanks, rivers, public woodlands, Forest Service, Catalogue of Woodlands of Public Utility, Autonomous regions, legal jurisdictions.

Abstract

The paper analyses the ownership and the jurisdiction for the management of riverbanks, with special attention on the ones whose limits were fixed by Spanish Forest Service (known as «marked out riverbanks»), transferred to autonomous regions. First, the paper reviews the procedure for marking out riverbanks, created by Law of October 18th 1941, and its development until the enactment of Spanish Water Law (1985). Then, it reviews this Law and its modifications, that omit the Law enacted in 1941, what permits two opposed interpretations: «the forest one» and «the hydraulic one». Last, the paper studies: the legal regulation of hydraulic public property and of woodlands; the National Resources Law and the Woodlands Law; and the cases that permit concurrence of public ownerships. The paper concludes: Water Law enacted in 1985 did not overtake Riverbanks Law enacted in 1941; a riverbank can be legally define as a woodland; Forest Service has enough legal jurisdiction for managing riverbanks if they are woodlands; and marked out riverbanks are property of autonomus regions.

Published

2008-04-09

Issue

Section

ADMINISTRATIVE REPORT OF SPAIN AND THE EUROPEAN UNION