Useful Links

www.thenews.coop – Worldwide news on Co-ops

Concerned Co-operators for a fresh, principled and critical view

On Legal Scholarship generally it’s great to see open source and commons taking off in the US at Law Review Commons 

Cultivate.Coop is an online hub for pooling knowledge and resources on cooperatives. It is a space to collect free information for those interested in cooperatives and where people can build useful educational tools for the co-op community

Andrew Bibby’s co-op blog has some interesting reflections from long time co-op journalist, writer and activist, Andrew Bibby. For a full collection of his work go here: http://www.andrewbibby.com/socialenterprise.html

Co-op & Mutual Law – UK

Co- operatives UK – source of advice and help and the UK apex body for Co-ops

Linda Barlow’s Co-op Law Blog – a useful forum on governance and legal issues

Association of British Credit Unions (ABCUL) – the main apex body for UK credit unions

My Co-op Law Blog – legal and policy issues around Co-ops

Legislation in Great Britain

Since 1st August 2014 the Co-operative and Community Benefit Societies Act 2014 has been the main source of law for co-operative and community benefit societies. It consolidated all existing legislation and modernised the language to make it easier to use, find and navigate. Despite the consolidation, some separate legal sources still apply. The 2014 Statutory Instruments which applied Insolvency Rescue Procedures and Companies Act Investigation Powers to societies are still separate because they apply to societies and adapt existing laws. So are the “Asset Lock” Regulations from 2006 which apply to community benefit societies which have an “asset lock” rule in their rule book. The links in this paragraph are to the free and open www.legislation.gov.uk but always be sure you have an up to date version by updating the one you’ve found in line with the note (if any) at the top of the page you are looking at. Life is easier for those with access to an expensive privately owned service such as WestlawUK which regularly updates all legislative text.

For information and comment on the history and detailed proposals for the 2014 reform of Co-operative and Community Benefit Society Law visit the UK Co-op Law Reform 2013-2014 page

Research

Research in Co-operatives Mutuals and related Social Enterprise – Kent University – Research

European Research Institute on Co-operatives and Social Enterprise (EURICSE)

Member-controlled Enterprise Edgar Parnell’s 2013 on website has lots of useful and interesting information and analysis as well as a cornucopia of downloads

Mondragon Research Institute EKAICentre

Mutuo Public Policy Think Tank on Mutuals

European Union Law and Policy

European Commission DG Enterprise on Co-op Law and Policy

European Court of Justice and my thoughts on its State Aids case discussing definition of co-ops

European Parliament Resolution on European Co-operative Society 2012

Centre for British Influence through Europe: the case for British membership of the EU

Credit Unions and the EU – the European Network of Credit Unions

UK Government and Regulation

UK Department for Business Innovation and Skills (BIS) on Co-op Business Model

UK Cabinet Office  initiatives to promote the wider voluntary and mutual sector

 HM Treasury  – the sponsoring Department for UK industrial and provident society law

Financial Conduct Authority– Mutuals Registrar

Prudential Regulation Authority – Credit Union Regulator and the CREDS part of their Handbook which brings together rules for credit unions

Co-op & Mutual Law – USA

Here is a brilliant resource from Sustainable Economies Law Center (SELC) in Oakland California which is really well presented and is operated on a shared co-op basis – mainly on worker co-ops, I think.