You Have A Right to Beach Access

In 1995, the Hawai’i Supreme Court decided a landmark case that

confirmed all of Hawai’i’s beaches are open to the public and cannot be

privately owned. (See, Public Access Shoreline Hawai’i (PASH) vs.

Hawai’i County Planning Commission). This decision was confirmed

most recently by the high court in Diamond vs. Hawai’i (2006).

State law guarantees the public’s right to beach access. Hawai’i Revised

Statutes § 115 states that “the purpose of this chapter is to guarantee the

right of public access to the sea, shorelines, and inland recreational areas,

and transit along the shorelines, and to provide for the acquisition of

land for the purchase and maintenance of public rights-of-way and

public transit corridors.” This law also clearly states that:

“miles of shorelines, waters, and inland recreational areas … are

inaccessible to the public due to the absence of public rights-of-way,

“the absence of public rights-of-way is a contributing factor to mounting

acts of hostility against private shoreline properties and properties

bordering inland recreational areas’

“the absence of public access to Hawaii’s shorelines and inland

recreational areas constitutes an infringement upon the fundamental

right of free movement in public space and access to and use of coastal

and inland recreational areas”