Finland

Co-operative enterprise law is only rarely part of teaching curricula, even if around one billion members around the world are involved in this special form of enterprise with an economic and social impact to match. The repeated crisis resilience of co-operatives and the growing awareness that sustainable development issues must also be addressed by and through enterprises brings this shortcoming to light. The 2009 UN Resolution on the International Year of Cooperatives 2012, as well as the final declaration of the Rio + 20 conference attest to that. This course will examine co-operative law, which also includes other fields of law as they impact on the structure and operations of co-operatives, such as labour law, tax law, competition law and accounting and bookkeeping standards, as well as law making and implementation procedures.