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In Marburg, Germany, this July, a group of co-op law experts spoke to Professor Hans Munkner about the role of the ICA in advancing knowledge and practice. Besides Professor Munkner, the group included the Chair of the ICA Cooperative Law Committee, Hagan Henrÿ, law committee member Ifigeneia Douvitsa, ICA Cooperative Law Network member Dr. Leonardo Rafael D’souza, and Director of Legislation at the ICA, Santosh Kumar.The discussion began with questions directed to Professor Munkner, the first on improving the cooperative movement. Munkner stated that cooperatives create a “democratic nucleus” that can spread depending on the cooperative’s success. A cooperative that works well is the best argument for democratic economic performance - a case of actions speaking louder than words. The relevance of the International Statement on Cooperative Identity was the subsequent discussion on the agenda and whether sectors should develop their own identity statement.In Munkner’s opinion, if the statement of cooperative identity is good, then a second is redundant. Instead, individual sector statements of cooperative activity can be based on the original rather than creating separate ones that may weaken the movement. Next, Munkner was asked what the ICA, as the representative of the cooperative movement, could do to develop cooperative law. Munkner believed that the ICA shouldn’t intervene with the state’s law-making. Instead, if the ICA wants to influence cooperative law at a national level, the best thing to do is to have a clear international statement as a guideline. The ICA identity statement proposes legal suggestions based on experience and aren’t intended as an imposition on the state.Professor Hagan Henrÿ specifies that as far as cooperative law is concerned, the predecessor Recommendation 127 is much more precise. To this point, Munkner adds that the more specialized the laws are, the less they can apply as a whole. When identifying which ideas are sector-specific, those should be left out as they don’t have the proper place in a general law. Further, Henrÿ argues that the law is not to go into the details but to set general rules and for nations to maintain a principle of autonomy. Detailed laws are problematic in that they present more like a policy, which can be subject to quick changes. The conversation shifted toward education and what should occur for cooperative law to be part of the university law curriculum. An average legal education does not include cooperatives, and many must be aware of its existence. It is hard to convince lawyers to teach subjects students might not take.Cooperative lawyers must introduce cooperatives as an exciting subject matter for studies. Introducing cooperatives has proven successful with the association of cooperative researchers and institutes in Germany, where cooperative subject matter has become mainstream in general company and association law and economic policy. Henrÿ, as a final message, advocates for lawyers to have an open mind and to recognize cooperative law as an equal to build a solid groundwork for cooperatives.
