ICA – CCR European Research Conference Berlin, 21-23
August, 2019 Cooperatives and the
Transformation of Business and Society
Proposal to the ICA Europe research committee for
a forum/session on cooperative law and Call for respective papers
Topic: Transformation. Cooperative identity.
Cooperative law
The financial and economic crises
in the 1920ies affected cooperatives less than other forms of enterprise. The
same is true for the crises that began in 2007/2008. Especially those countries
with a diversity of forms of financial institutions proved to be relatively
more resilient against the shocks than countries with a lesser degree of diversity.
And yet, policy, regulatory
and legal measures continue putting the necessity for enterprise diversity into
doubt and the identity of cooperative enterprises at risk, regardless of the
recognition by governments around the world of the cooperative identity, as laid
down in the 1995 International Cooperative Alliance Statement on the cooperative
identity (ICA Statement), the 2001 United Nations Guidelines aimed at creating a supportive environment for
the development of cooperatives (UN Guidelines), and the 2002 International
Labor Organization Recommendation No.193 concerning the promotion of
cooperatives (ILO R. 193).
Since the beginning of the
1970ies, such measures tend to approximate the legal features of cooperatives
with those of capitalistic enterprises (companization). As of the 1990ies, those
measures aim to harmonize the governance structures of all enterprise forms
(convergence). This has been reinforced in the aftermath of the latest financial
crisis and as the corporate social responsibility (CSR) is being extended to
include societal aspects (CSSR) and as it is juridifying.
At its General Assembly in 2018 the ICA established an Identity
Committee. It is to suggest actions in view of ensuring the respect for the cooperative
identity. The renascent community of cooperative lawyers around the world should
be as concerned as the ICA is, as with the identity of cooperative enterprises disappears
the very object of their interest and lawmakers have an obligation to translate
the cooperative identity into legal rules.
This translation needs taking account of the reasons which have led and continue
to lead to companizing the cooperative form of enterprise and to streamlining
the governance structures of all enterprise forms (convergence). In addition, differentiating
cooperatives through law from other types of enterprises for the sake of recognizing
the choice of a large number of people around the world and for the sake of diversity
has become a complex issue. Both, the competitive advantage of cooperatives as
empirical entities and the competitive advantage of the cooperative enterprise
type needs preserving. Furthermore, the factors that transform every aspect of
our economies and societies and which are described in the Call for papers for
this conference, impact the set-up of cooperative enterprises in at least three
ways: Firstly, as do all enterprises, cooperatives also integrate ever more
organizationally into vertical and horizontal, data processing chains, which
they do not control. Secondly, the positions of producer and consumer merge
ever more. Thirdly, private and public law entities merge organizationally into
new types of organizations (for example in the education, health and energy
sectors).
Contributions to this session may, for example,
deal with policy, regulatory and legal measures,
which put the identity of cooperatives at risk
discuss legal reform measures, which contribute to
the continued diversity of enterprise forms
discuss ways which lead out of the imbroglio of the
notions of values and principles as underlying the ICA Statement, the ILO R.
193, philosophy and ethics and legal science
discuss the potential contribution of organizational
enterprise law to the resilience of economies against shocks
discuss those legal features of cooperatives which
seem to make them resilient.
Deadline for abstracts: Please send Your abstract no later than February 10, 2019 to me at [email protected]
The International Journal of Cooperative Law (IJCL), issued by Ius Cooperativum (an international community of cooperative lawyers), is the first ever academic, peer reviewed, online, open access journal explicitly focused on cooperative law.
Its first issue was published in July 2018 and it is available here.
The focus of the IJCL is cooperative law, broadly defined all those legal rules – laws, administrative acts, court decisions, jurisprudence, cooperative bylaws/statutes or any other source of law – which regulate the structure and/or the operations of cooperatives as enterprises in the economic sense and as institutions in the legal sense, including provisions from other areas of law, applied to cooperatives (such as tax law, labor law, competition law). Its purpose is to stimulate the development of an international thinking in cooperative law and to include cooperative law into the major academic debates about the future of business law or the regulation of enterprises. IJCL publishes articles, reviews, case studies, case-law commentaries, empirical research pieces or book reviews for a wider audience on topics related to national, regional or international cooperative law, including global and comparative perspectives. The IJCL has no geographical limitation nor one by legal traditions; quite the contrary, it seeks to cover cooperative law worldwide. Contributions through the lens of law per se will be complemented with other approaches, such as the approaches of law and economics, political and social sciences. The IJCL is mainly addressed to legal scholars and academics, without excluding practitioners and professionals with an interest in the field however.
Authors that are interested in contributing to the IJCL’s second issue – to be published before June 2019 – are invited to submit their work at [email protected]before the 31st of January 2019.
Exceptionally, contributions that have been previously published elsewhere and are of major interest for cooperative law may also be considered for publication, under the condition that there will be no copyrights’ infringements.
LANGUAGE
The language of the journal is English. Nevertheless, contributions may also be submitted in French, German or Spanish. However, if accepted, the author will be invited to translate the manuscript into English.
LENGTH
There are no minimum or maximum requirements with regard to the length of the submitted manuscript
PROCESS
The contributions will be subject to an anonymous peer-reviewing process, during which the article will be evaluated and a decision will be made for the article’s acceptance, revision or rejection.
SUBMISSION GUIDELINES
Structure of contribution:
At the first page, please write down the title of your contribution, your surname, first name and affiliation. Please also include an abstract. The references shall be at the end of the contribution.
File to be send:
Please send your contribution in “Word Document” format at the e-mail [email protected] (email subject: “Submission for the second issue of IJCL”). The name of the file shall be the following “SURNAME, FIRST NAME – TITLE OF CONTRIBUTION”.
The 1st issue of the International Journal of Cooperative Law is out! You can read it in your browser by clicking the title below or download a copy using the Download button.
Short Course on “Cooperative law for sustainable development” (7.8.-23.8.2018, University of Helsinki): the deadline for application submission is due on the 31th of July, 2018. For more information please visit http://www.helsinkisummerschool.fi/courses/course/cooperative-law-for-sustainable-development/
15:00- 16:30 Round Table between economists and lawyers, the motto being: “What can we/what must we learn from each other”?
16:30 – Acropolis Museum Visit
17:00-19:00 Workshop for students and lawyers: Introduction to cooperatives and cooperative law – Collaboration with European Law Students’ Association – Henrÿ Hagen, Kassavetis Demosthenis
Thursday, 28 of September 2018
10:00 10:30 Registration
10:30 -12:00 Cooperative law and the legal framework of the social economy
Chair: Geormas Konstantinos
Kalimeri Eleni, Barkas Ioannis, The legal framework of the Social Solidarity Economy in Greece
Melissourgos Georgios, Salasidou Panagiota, Meddling with the chaos: Which Greek legal forms may hold the status of Bodies of Social Solidarity Economy?
Tryfona Ioanna, Keranis Giorgos, Recommendations on the framework of Worker Buyouts of failing or bankrupt companies within the context of Social and Solidarity Economy organizations
12:00: 12:15 Break 1
12:15- 14:15 The legal relevance of the cooperative principles for other fields of law
Chair: Nikolaou Kostas
Vouroutzis Zisis, The liability of the governing bodies of agricultural cooperatives in relation to the provisions of the environmental legislation
17: 15 – 18: 45 Legal requirements for specific types of cooperatives by governance/structure (e.g. workers’ cooperatives, multi-stakeholder cooperatives, social cooperatives)
Chair: Meira Deolinda
Koupidis Sotiris, Buying social: Social cooperatives and public procurement
12:00- 13:10 Cooperative law and human rights
Chair: Tsironas Thanasis
Hiez David, Voluntary membership: up to which point do cooperatives support liberalism?
Filippou Dionysis, The Greek constitutional provisions on cooperatives
Tsironas Thanasis, The formation of compulsory cooperative by law and the principle of proportionality
João Telmo Oliveira Filho, The right of cooperativism as a fundamental right: The constitutional principles and normative guidelines of Brazilian cooperativism as elements for the characterization of the fundamental right to cooperativism
13:10- 14:00 Break 2
14:00- 15:30 Cooperative law and globalization.
Chair: Tziva Efi
Anthopoulou Theodosia, Kavoulakos Karolos, The importance of distance learning programs for the development of SSE
Henrÿ Hagen, The summer school on “Cooperative law for sustainable development” and the cooperative network studies, Ruralia Institute, Helsinki University
Ius Cooperativum: International Journal of Cooperative Law- World Map of cooperative lawyers
17: 45-18:00 Break 4
18:00- 18: 45 Conclusions- Henrÿ Hagen
18: 45- Dinner
2ND INTERNATIONAL FORUM ON COOPERATIVE LAW- CALL FOR PAPERS
The 2nd International Forum on Cooperative Law follows the one organized in 2016 at Montevideo, Uruguay. The fruitful outcome of the Montevideo Forum – both as concerns the number of participants and the positive feed-back – led to the decision to organize such meetings biannually.
The 2nd International Forum on Cooperative Law will be organized at Athens by Ius Cooperativum, with the support of the International Co-operative Alliance and of two local co-organizers: the Hellenic Open University (Athens) and the Peoples’ University on Social and Solidarity Economy (Thessaloniki).
Aim
Under the overall theme of “Cooperative Law and Cooperative Principles”, which is to point to the relevance of the internationally recognized cooperative principles for cooperative law, the 2nd International Forum on Cooperative Law will focus on the place of the cooperative principles in cooperative law, the research and education in the field of cooperative law, and on an exchange of views on cooperatives by lawyers and economists.
The themes of the Forum might include:
The legal relevance (if any) of the cooperative principles for cooperative law
The legal relevance (if any) of the cooperative principles for other fields of law (e.g. constitutions, administration law, tax law, bankruptcy law, labor law, competition law, bankruptcy law, audit regulations, book-keeping and accounting standards)
Legal requirements (if any) for specific types of cooperatives, either by sector (e.g. agricultural, banking, energy cooperatives), or by governance/structure (e.g. workers’ cooperatives, multi-stakeholder cooperatives, social cooperatives)
The unification of cooperative law at national, regional and international levels
Cooperative law and the legal framework of the social economy
Cooperative law and globalization.
Policies on research and education in the field of cooperative law
Educational programs in the field of cooperative law
Tools for the research and study of cooperative law.
It is also planned to have a dialogue on any of the above or related themes between economists and lawyers, the motto being: “What can we/what must we learn from each other”?
Call for expression of interest
To express your interest in attending, please send an email to Ifigeneia Douvitsa (at: [email protected]) no later than the end of July.
If you would like to speak at the event, you are kindly invited to submit an abstract of 500-800 words to Ifigeneia Douvitsa (at: [email protected]), indicating one of the above-mentioned themes, to which it relates, no later than the end of July.
The full papers should be submitted no later than 28th August 2018 and may be considered for publication for the 2nd issue of the International Journal of Cooperative Law.
We wish to remind you that the deadline for the submission of contributions for the first issue of the International Journal of Cooperative Law expires on the 31st of August. For more information please visit https://iuscooperativum.org/call-for-papers/
The need to know about and understand cooperative law, coupled with the absence of an academic international journal of cooperative law, gave birth to the idea of creating the:
“International Journal of Cooperative Law (IJCL)”
The focus of the journal is cooperative law, broadly defined as all those legal rules which regulate the structure and/or the operations of cooperatives as enterprises in the economic sense and as institutions in the legal sense, including provisions from other areas of law, applied to cooperatives.
The journal’s establishment and development aspires to contribute to fill the knowledge and research gap, while constituting the venue to establish cooperative legal theory in the discipline of law. To promote its goals, the IJCL will be an open access, online journal and its issues will be published at www.iuscooperativum.org in order to reach the highest possible number of readers.
Authors that are interested in contributing to the IJCL’s first issue – to be published at the end of 2017 – are invited to submit their work at [email protected] before the 31th of August.
SUBMISSION GUIDELINES
TYPES OF CONTRIBUTIONS
The editors will consider articles, book reviews, event reports, commentaries on court cases and contributions on legislation that are of significance for a wider audience on topics related to national, regional or international cooperative law, including global and comparative perspectives.
The editors are also interested in publishing manuscripts on labor law, tax law, competition law and other areas of law that have an impact on the cooperatives’ structure and operation.
Contributions that have been previously published elsewhere in other forms or/and languages may also be submitted at the IJCL, under the condition that there will be no copyrights’ infringements.
LANGUAGE
The official language of the journal is English. Nevertheless, the abstract – apart from English- may be in French, German or Spanish. The rest of the manuscript does not have to be necessarily in English but, if accepted, the author is kindly invited to translate the manuscript into the IJCL’s official language.
LENGTH
There are no specific minimum or maximum requirements with regard to the length of the submitted manuscript
REFERENCE STYLE
Please use the following example for your manuscript’s citations:
JORGE, J., ALBARRÁN,, C. & SALINAS, F. (2013): “La Economía Social ante el nuevo paradigma de Bienestar social”, CIRIEC-España. Revista de Economía Pública, Social y Cooperativa, 79, 5-34.
PROCESS
The contributions will be subject to an anonymous peer-reviewing process, during which the article will be evaluated and a decision will be made for the article’s acceptance, revision or rejection.
Kindest regards,
The editors
Ifigeneia Douvitsa, Cynthia Giagnocavo, Hagen Henrÿ , David Hiez, Ian Snaith
UAAM-VVOV, Lieve Lowet, partner at ICODA European Affairs and AMICE, are jointly sponsoring and promoting The European Mutual Insurance Award, which aims to encourage research and analysis in the field of mutual insurance legislation in Europe.
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