In a high-impact institutional judicial resolution for the Fuegian claim, the Federal Court of First Instance of Rio Grande formally resolved to admit the intervention of the “MUNICIPALITY OF THE CITY OF RIO GRANDE AS AN INTERESTED THIRD PARTY” in the collective case initiated against the corporations “Rockhopper Exploration” and “Navitas Petroleum” for the illegal exploitation of hydrocarbons in the Malvinas Norte Basin. 

The decision was made this Monday , September 28, by Federal Judge Mariel Borruto within the framework of case file FCR 13706/2026 (“Centro de Ex Combatientes Islas Malvinas La Plata et al. v. Rockhopper Exploration et al. re: Civil and Commercial - Various”). This measure consolidates the local government's presence in the same case where, on September 16, the court issued an unprecedented injunction, ordering the oil companies to refrain from initiating or continuing any work related to the “Sea Lion” project until the Argentine environmental authority intervenes.

However, the institutional progress in the north of the Big Island occurs under the shadow of an adverse precedent issued in the last few hours on the fourth floor of Talcahuano : the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation revoked the sentence that stopped article 154 of DNU 70/23, dismissing the procedural legitimacy of the CECIM La Plata and formally repealing the Rural Lands Law (26.737). 

The Rio Grande resolution sits on the litigation 

In her ruling of September 28, Judge Borruto granted the request made by the Rio Grande municipal executive on September 11, after the deadline given to the parties had expired without any opposition being raised: 

Intervention admitted: The court resolved to admit the intervention of the Municipality as an interested third party under the terms of Articles 90 (paragraph 1) and 91 of the National Code of Civil and Commercial Procedure (CPCCN). The intervention will be accessory and subordinate to the plaintiff—comprised of CECIM La Plata and the Argentine Association of Environmental Lawyers— , establishing that the final judgment rendered in the case will apply to the municipality as well as to the main litigants (Art. 96 of the CPCCN).

Adherence to the precautionary measure: The ruling considered the municipality's adherence to the substantive claim, the evidence offered, and the precautionary measure that already ordered the halting of the physical work of the foreign consortium.

The intervention of the Province: The ruling also addressed the presentation of the State Prosecutor of Tierra del Fuego, Virgilio Juan Martínez de Sucre, accepting the documentary evidence and forwarding it to the plaintiff for a period of five days to comment on the scope of the provincial intervention requested in the terms of article 90, paragraph 2, of the CPCCN.

The shadow of the Court's ruling: Is sovereignty a "collective good"? 

The formal inclusion of the Municipality of Río Grande in the case file takes on strategic defensive value in the face of the restrictive shift adopted by the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation . With the votes of Justices Horacio Rosatti, Carlos Rosenkrantz, and Ricardo Lorenzetti , the highest court dismissed the case initiated by the CECIM (Center for Ex-Combatants of the Malvinas) against the foreign ownership of land under a strict technicality: it determined that the Malvinas War veterans lack "legal standing" to challenge Decree 70/23 in court. 

In the ruling made public yesterday, the Court determined that territorial sovereignty is an exclusive right of the federal State and that "it can in no way be considered a collective good in the sense of article 43 of the National Constitution" that enables direct legal action by citizens or non-governmental organizations. 

This doctrine creates a cloud of uncertainty over ongoing sovereign disputes: 

1. The procedural strategy of the oil companies: Faced with the judicial attacks and the requests sent by Comodoro Py, the defenses of Navitas and Rockhopper will try to appeal to the Court's criteria to try to overturn the representativeness of the CECIM and the environmental lawyers in the Fuegian case.

2. The institutional shield of Río Grande: Precisely for this reason, the judicial admission of the Municipality of Río Grande as an active party in the process—coupled with the imminent formalization by the Tierra del Fuego State Prosecutor's Office—grants direct state standing to the claim. As a state entity with territorial and environmental powers in the Malvinas district, it neutralizes the risk of the case being dismissed due to a mere obstacle to the legitimacy of civil society. 

While in the offices of the Federal Capital the Supreme Court deregulated territorial ownership, enabling the indiscriminate purchase of border areas and aquifers by foreign capital, the federal courts of the capital of Río Grande are joining forces with the municipal government to uphold the injunction that halts the plundering in the South Atlantic. The Malvinas Cause is waging a new legal battle: between London's maneuvers and centralist reluctance, the