The Principles of European Cooperative Law
The very first comparative study of European principles of cooperative law is out now!
The book “The Principles of European Cooperative Law”, published by Intersentia, is written by a team of legal scholars (Gemma Fajardo, Antonio Fici, Hagen Henrÿ, David Hiez, Deolinda Meira, Hans-H. Münkner and Ian Snaith) gathered around Study Group on European Cooperative Law (SGECOL) who’s work and studies are supported by Euricse.
The Principles of European Cooperative Law (PECOL) focus on the ‘ideal’ legal identity of cooperatives and aim at describing the common core of European cooperative law. They are based on both existing cooperative law in Europe and the EU regulation on the societas cooperativa europaea. The Principles are accompanied by commentaries which illustrate the rationale and legislative background of each principle, and link them to the key features of co-operative identity. The PECOL are articulated into five chapters corresponding to the main aspects around which the identity of a cooperative should be structured, namely: the purpose pursued, internal governance, financial structure, external control and cooperation among cooperatives.
The second part of the book presents the national reports upon which the PECOL were based. The reports offer a detailed overview of the cooperative law of seven European jurisdictions (Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Portugal, Spain, and the UK), and thus, provide a unique opportunity for lawmakers, practitioners and researchers to compare, circulate and apply best practices of cooperative legislation.
“Thanks to the work of an impressive team of researchers, this book provides an important contribution towards a more unified approach to cooperative law at the European level, and will be of use, not only to researchers, but also to any nation that might want to update or improve its cooperative legislation. At the same time, much work remains to be done in order to develop a comprehensive framework – one that includes cooperative law, as well as regulations pertaining to the other branches of law that also affect cooperatives (such as, for instance, taxation and labour law). At Euricse, we are proud of the results that the group of scholars have carried out, the outcome this research has achieved and we are very grateful for their work. Moving forward, we will continue to carry out legal research as part of our multidisciplinary approach to the study of cooperative and social enterprises, and to support the analysis of the laws and regulations that define, shape and affect cooperative enterprises throughout Europe and beyond”, underlined Carlo Borzaga, president of Euricse in the forward to the book which is just published and can be orderd here.
