Avv. Francesco Tedioli (Author)

Italian Agricultural Cooperatives Between Civil Law and European Regulation: A Development Perspective

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Italian agricultural cooperatives represent a distinctive economic and legal model that balances mutualistic principles with entrepreneurial strategies. This paper examines the evolving regulatory framework governing these cooperatives, focusing on the interplay between Italian civil law and European regulations. The analysis explores key structural and functional aspects, including mutuality, governance, digital transformation, and integration with renewable energy communities. A central objective is to assess the legal and economic challenges affecting agricultural cooperatives, particularly in relation to their internationalization and financial stability. The study highlights potential reforms aimed at enhancing competitiveness while preserving the cooperative identity. By examining judicial interpretations and legislative developments, the paper provides insights into how cooperatives can adapt to emerging market and policy dynamics, ensuring long-term sustainability within the agri-food sector.

Tadgh Quill-Manley (Author)

Worker Co-operatives and Industrial Democracy in Ireland: Historical Perspectives, Legal Frameworks, and Pathways for Growth

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Worker co-operatives, firms owned and democratically administered by their workers, provide a robust type of industrial democracy with significant historical foundations in Ireland and the European Union (EU). This article analyses the progression of worker co-operatives within these circumstances, mapping their emergence as reactions to social inequity, economic disruption, and the pursuit of fair working standards. It rigorously examines the legal frameworks governing worker co-operatives in Ireland and the EU, emphasising the obstacles presented by fragmented law, restricted access to financing, and insufficient support mechanisms.
Notwithstanding governmental support for co-operative principles at the EU level, worker co- operatives constitute a rather insignificant industry. This article examines obstacles to expansion, such as cultural prejudices against conventional corporate methods and insufficient understanding of co-operative governance. Utilising successful models from nations such as Spain and Italy, it delineates plans for development, including adjustments to Irish and EU law, augmented financial assistance, and education about the advantages of co-operative enterprises.
This article presents a historical and legal study that highlights the capacity of worker co-operatives to mitigate economic inequality and promote industrial democracy in Ireland and the EU. It desires focused governmental measures to fully realise the sector's groundbreaking potential.

RAFAŁ ADAMUS (Author)

Declaration of Bankruptcy of a Cooperative in Poland in the selected Court judgements

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The subject of this study is the issue of the prerequisites (substantive and procedural) for declaring bankruptcy of a cooperative under Polish law. The court hearing a cooperative bankruptcy case applies Polish law. Bankruptcy law is a set of procedural and substantive legal norms. Polish legal tradition treats cooperatives as special types of debtors. Specific rules related to formally declaring bankruptcy of a cooperative are regulated in the Cooperative Law, not the Bankruptcy Law. A cooperative is not a "typical" entrepreneur. Declaring bankruptcy, on the other hand, is based on the membership bond of a cooperative. This study reviews the relevant court case law and presents certain de lege ferenda postulates.

Holger Blisse (Author)

The Case for the Legal Protection of Cooperative Reserves in ‘Old’ Cooperatives in Germany and Austria (Part 2)

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This article continues the text published in issue V of the journal (2023, 152–158) and examines in more detail the origins of today’s financial constitution of a cooperative under § 73 German Cooperative Act. This norm can be seen as a protective norm for the permanent continuation of the unit of a cooperative with an increasing portion of the reserves remaining in the cooperative. The norm emphasizes the ‘social dimension’ of cooperative reserves. Developments in Austria are also considered. Over time, special protection is required for cooperatives that have existed for more than one generation: for ‘old’ ooperatives. This protection can come from both exceptions in the transformation law and additional – foundation-like – supervision.

Tomasz Dąbrowski (Author)

Liquidation of cooperatives under Polish law

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Cooperatives have a rich tradition in Poland and are an important part of the economic landscape. Cooperatives bring members together to conduct joint economic activities in their interest. The liquidation of primary-level cooperatives is regulated by the current Act of 16 September 1982 – Cooperative Law. The aim of this article is to analyse this institution, with particular emphasis on the legal basis, the liquidation process and the role of the bodies involved in this process. The author argues that the legal regulation of the liquidation of cooperatives contained in the Cooperative Law, despite its formal detail, does not meet the requirements of modern economic security due to fundamental shortcomings in determining the date of commencement of liquidation, qualification requirements for liquidators and the status of cooperative bodies in the course of liquidation proceedings. These legal gaps lead to interpretative uncertainty, threats to creditors' rights and the ineffectiveness of liquidation procedures, which requires a comprehensive amendment of the regulations in line with the regulations concerning capital companies.

ziwei xu (Author)

Asset Lock and Voluntary Loss of Social Enterprise’s Status: A Comparative Legal Analysis

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Legal architectures for asset dedication in social enterprises have proliferated across Europe, yet the durability of the asset lock at the point of voluntary exit remains insufficiently theorized. Existing scholarship focuses predominantly on formation and governance conditions, treating the asset lock as a static rule rather than a dynamic commitment subject to erosion when organizations seek to reorient or abandon their social purpose. This article develops a lifecycle-based analytical framework and examines the resilience of asset dedication upon voluntary loss of social enterprise status across four jurisdictions: the United Kingdom (the UK), Ireland, Luxembourg, and Italy. The study demonstrates that asset-lock resilience depends not merely on its nominal adoption, but on its legal inseparability from organizational identity and its enforceability at exit. The UK’s Community Interest Company (CIC) and the Italian social cooperative represent form-constitutive regimes where the asset lock is legally entrenched, and exit is structurally foreclosed. By contrast, Ireland’s policy-defined Company Limited by Guarantee (CLG) model and Luxembourg’s accreditation-dependent Société d’Impact Sociétal in cooperative form (SIS-SCOP) regime reveal vulnerabilities, particularly where voluntary derecognition lacks statutory guardrails and where internal voting structures permit mission drift. Italy illustrates a dual-track system: immutable dedication in ex lege social cooperatives versus reversible, sector-bounded dedication in non-social cooperatives with social enterprise status (CONSIS). The comparative findings suggest that where asset dedication is tied to discretionary membership decisions rather than immutable legal form, social value becomes susceptible to private recapture or sectoral reallocation. The article contends that exit regulations (i.e., in cases of voluntary relinquishment of social enterprise status), rather than entry criteria, constitute the fundamental normative element of social enterprise regulation. Legal frameworks for social enterprises must establish residual asset dedication, prevent unilateral mission reversal, and incorporate regulatory oversight at the point of voluntary exit to safeguard social commitments.

Frederico Botelho da Costa Santos (Author)

The Binding Force of Cooperative Principles in Portuguese Law: Definition, Implementation, and Jurisprudential Enforcement

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This article examines the legal and conceptual foundations of cooperative principles, demonstrating that cooperatives are far more than “mere enterprises.” While cooperatives engage in economic activity, their identity is defined by a distinctive normative and ethical framework embodied in the Statement on the Cooperative Identity adopted by the International Cooperative Alliance (ICA) in 1995. The seven cooperative principles—voluntary and open membership, democratic member control, member economic participation, autonomy and independence, education and training, cooperation among cooperatives, and concern for community—constitute the core of the cooperative model and have been legally incorporated into Portuguese law through Article 3 of the Portuguese Cooperative Code.

Tracing the historical evolution of Portuguese cooperative legislation, from the Law on Cooperative Societies of 1867 to the Decree-Law No. 454/80 and its subsequent amendments, the article highlights how the legislator progressively recognized the binding force of cooperative principles, transforming them from moral guidelines into enforceable legal norms.

The theoretical analysis is complemented by the discussion of a landmark judicial decision—Judgment of the Guimarães Court of Appeal, 25 May 2016 (Case No. 860/13.5TJVNF.G1)—in which the court declared null a statutory provision imposing an excessive admission fee (€150,000), holding it contrary to the principle of voluntary and open membership. This case illustrates the jurisprudential affirmation of the binding nature of cooperative principles, demonstrating that statutory autonomy within cooperatives is limited by their legal and ethical foundations.

Ultimately, the article concludes that compliance with cooperative principles constitutes a conditio sine qua non for the lawful operation and legitimacy of cooperatives. These principles, possessing both ethical and normative force, define the cooperative’s social function, ensure its democratic governance, and safeguard its identity within the Portuguese legal system.

David Hiez (Author)

Ian Adderley, Co-operatives: Linking practice and theory, Co-Op Press Publishing, 2025, 584 p.

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In May 2025, with the support of the UK Society for Co-operative Studies, Ian Adderley published a remarkable book on co-operatives. It is valuable for a wide range of readers, not only because of its breadth, but also because of its ambition to expand the scope of co-operative thinking. Instead of organising his work around the features of the co-operative (democracy, inter-cooperation, cooperative transactions, etc.), Adderley frames it explicitly by reference to academic disciplines: history, law, economics, finance, management, and so on. The book offers an “overview of co-operatives.”. Formally, each chapter is subdivided with subheadings, which enables (and perhaps encourages) selective reading. Although I read the book cover to cover, I am certain I will return to individual sections many times in search of information or references.