Título en español.

Abstract

In this work the author analyzes the presence of Law in the social construction of space. The article offers a glance to the relation between Law, the meanings of spaces and its construction process, and examines the most recent claims to safeguard one of the few spaces still conceived as public: the beach. The article approaches the coonstruction of the beach as a public space through the legal discourse, conscious that the beach, like other spaces, is subjected to constant change and negotiation. The law will define "the beach". It will do it from diverse categories: as a public space in limits with private property, as an activity allowed or forbidden by the law, and from the proprietary perspective. There are other perspectives that define that space. Three case studies are examined: the campaign Playas Pal Pueblo (Beaches for People) by the Movement for Independence in the sixties, the controversy on the access to the beach through the Ocean Park urbanization, and the case of Carolina‘s public beach also known as Isla Verde. The article approaches the following: (1) how do the legal discourse and other social practices co-construct a particular social space called the beach; (2) how do the legal definition and the legal discourse can provide to present a claim for a public space in the form of a right; and (3) the danger of an excessive prominence of Law in the social construction of that space.