Unfettered public access to Hawai'i's beaches has been such an accepted right for so long that it's hard to imagine anything else. But beachgoers owe a debt of gratitude to William S. Richardson, the former chief justice of the Hawai'i Supreme Court whose rulings in the 1960s and '70s sided with a traditional Hawaiian philosophy that beaches and water belonged to everyone.

The Richardson court declared surface waters belonged to the public, expanded the public's access to beaches and recognized ancient Hawaiian practices on private property. It even ruled that new land created by lava flows belonged to the state and not the nearest property owner.

Richardson, who was part Hawaiian, believed that western concepts of exclusivity were not entirely applicable in Hawai'i. During the Hawaiian monarchy, beaches and water belonged to the people.

Richardson, the namesake for the University of Hawai'i's law school in Manoa, was chief justice from 1966 to 1982. He had been a part of Hawai'i's blossoming Democratic party when it came to power in 1954 and was elected lieutenant governor under Gov. John Burns in 1962.

But his landmark rulings on access had roots in Richardson's youth. To get to Waikiki Beach as a boy, he often had to walk around the glamorous hotel guests at The Royal Hawaiian, where security would chase him away from its private beach.