Ecological labour law, just transition and extractivist constitutionalism: Argentina in light of Inter-American jurisprudence

This article examines the prospects and limits of developing an ecological labour law within Argentina’s extractivist constitutional order. Argentina constitutes a paradigmatic case of structural contradiction, where a robust tradition of social constitutionalism coexists with a political economy deeply dependent on large-scale resource extraction. The article argues that, notwithstanding the 1994 constitutional recognition of environmental rights, the Argentine legal framework has largely facilitated extractivist policies. Judicial interventions by the Supreme Court to curb environmental harm, while normatively significant, remain exceptional and have not displaced the prevailing productivist logic underpinning labour regulation and development policy. Against this backdrop, the article explores whether an ecological reconceptualisation of labour law is conceivable within existing legal constraints. It situates just transition, approached from a workers’ rights perspective, as a pivotal yet under-theorised component of ecological labour law, particularly in contexts marked by informality. The analysis then turns to the recent jurisprudence of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, with particular emphasis on Advisory Opinion OC-32/25. Although still fragmented, it opens a normative space for integrating labour rights, climate protection and just transition within the Inter-American framework and the Argentine legal order, offering pathways for rethinking labour law beyond its traditional productivist foundations.