Spain’s Constitutional Court has declared two provisions of the Valencian coastal law unconstitutional in their application to public maritime and coastal land, in a ruling examining buildings at Babilonia beach in Guardamar del Segura.
The judgment limits the scope of regional protection for coastal settlements where it conflicts with the Spanish state’s powers over that land.
The decision concerns Article 17 and the first final provision of Law 3/2025, dated 22 May, exclusively insofar as they apply to property within the public maritime and coastal domain.
Cultural protection and state powers
The court recognises that the Valencian Community can protect the cultural, historical and ethnological value of coastal urban settlements, including those situated on public-domain land.
However, that protection cannot restrict the state’s powers to safeguard the integrity and recovery of these areas under coastal legislation.
The conflict arises because the law allows special conservation plans to be approved and brings these settlements within the protection system for Valencian cultural heritage.
That system entails conservation obligations and restrictions on demolishing protected buildings, measures which may prevent the state from carrying out its responsibilities over public-domain land.
The Constitutional Court declares the two provisions unconstitutional within that scope, but does not annul them: they can continue to apply elsewhere along the coast where the identified conflict over powers does not arise.
The reference to Babilonia
The judgment examines the State Legal Service’s argument concerning buildings at Babilonia whose demolition had been ordered in final court decisions and was awaiting enforcement.
The court recalls that a constitutional challenge provides an abstract review of legislation, rather than an examination of intentions attributed to the legislature.
The court’s vice-president, Inmaculada Montalbán Huertas, was the reporting judge for the ruling.
Regional government to analyse the decision
Valencian president Juanfran Pérez Llorca announced on Thursday that the regional government would study the judgment, saying he had not yet been able to read it in full.
Speaking in Castelló de la Plana, he defended the regional legislation and maintained that the decision did not mean the entire law ceased to be valid.
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