Theory and Praxis of Environmental Rights in Argentina

GUTIÉRREZ, RICARDO A.

Toronto

Congreso; XXIX International Congress of the Latin American Studies Association; 2010

Latin American Studies Association

While new environmental rights were introduced with the 1994 amendments to the national constitution, unprecedented cases of environmental conflict took place in Argentina over the last decade. Drawing upon literature on environmental justice and citizenship, this paper aims to build a political framework to examine the way environmental conflicts actualize otherwise dormant environmental rights. Three modes of environmental conflict are distinguished: judicial litigation, social protest, and expert controversy. The paper argues that environmental rights are not solely advanced through legislative processes, administrative procedures, and institutionalized participation mechanisms (important as they are) but also through different modes of conflict and discusses how those modes manifest themselves and combine in specific cases of environmental conflict.