The legal protection of coasts : A comparative analysis between United Kingdom, United States of America and Italy

Pollution, tourism, maritime traffic, and uncontrolled house building deter- mine a very strong anthropic pressure to the coasts. Damage to the coastal system and natural habitats, then, is often irreversible in nature. The damage to economi- cally non-strategic areas, therefore, is not only manifested through the neglect and abandonment of the coastline, but through destructive human works aimed at obtaining materials, primarily sand, necessary for the restoration and securing of economically important areas. The legal analysis of environmental problems, per- haps even more than other issues intercepted by the law, requires starting with some consideration of the characteristics of those problems.