Agricultural Cooperatives and Cooperative Law

The paper analyses the advantages and weakpoints of cooperatives, especially in agriculture, as they are identified by the contemporary cooperative theory. The theoretical findings are connected with the comparative survey of recent developments of the cooperative law, where the draft new model law on agricultural cooperatives in USA, the Regulation No. 1435/2003/EC about the statute of the European Cooperative Society (Societas Cooperativa Europaea, SCE) and cooperative regulation in some other states as well as the Slovenian Act on Cooperatives are mentioned. The development of the modern cooperative law is characterised by two trends. Due to the globalisation, the cooperative law is being directly or, at least indirectly, hamonized on the international level. The setting up of internal market in various integrations (EU, for instance), which includes the free movement of production factors and widely interpreted right of establishment, brings also more or less latent competition among different legal regimes. Moreover, in several states some legal provisions about cooperatives are being modelled following the joint-stock company example. All these developments have their advantages and risks.