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International Handbook of Cooperative Law pp 393–411Cite as

France

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Abstract

French cooperative law is solid but extremely diverse. It results from its historical development, characterized by ambivalent relations between cooperative organizations and the State. Its main feature is a high emphasis on legislation dedicated to specific cooperatives and, therefore, the difficulty to present common solutions. Its second characteristic is the strength of the link, even though it can be conflicting, between cooperative law and company law.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Loi du 24 juillet 1867 sur les sociétés commerciales. When a separate reference is not made, all the statutes to which we refer may be found on the website of French law: http://www.legifrance.gouv.fr.

  2. 2.

    Coutant (1950).

  3. 3.

    Titre III of the law of 24 July 1867 on commercial companies. These statements are now articles L.231-1 to L.231-8 of the Commerce Code.

  4. 4.

    Conveyance cooperatives for example: decree 94-63 of 8 February 1963, on the cooperation in public conveying of goods, JORF 9 February 1963.

  5. 5.

    Law 92-643 of 13 July 1992, JORF 14 July 1992.

  6. 6.

    Law of 1 July 1901 on association contracts, JORF 2 July 1901.

  7. 7.

    Ch. Réun., 11 March 1914, caisse rurale de Manigod, DP 1914, 1, p. 259; S. 1918, 1, p. 103.

  8. 8.

    Mestre (1996), pp. 425.

  9. 9.

    It is not possible to mention all the special cooperative laws, which are about 30. We will deal with the most important in this paper. For an exhaustive view of the texts, we advise a new private Code which gathers all the provisions dealing with social and solidarity economy: Meynet (2012).

  10. 10.

    The French version uses “société,” but there is no equivalent for “society” in legal French, and “société” means only company. “Société” may also have a less commercial meaning in the common language, i.e. while “societies”, which are legally associations, do exist, they are not given a title other than “company” in legal French.

  11. 11.

    Cass. com., 28 Feb. 2006, n. 04-16.514: Bull. civ. 2006, IV, n. 55; Dr. sociétés 2006, comm. 102, note H. Lécuyer; JCP E 2007, 1907, n. 2, obs. M. Mahfoudi.

  12. 12.

    Cass. civ. 3 July 1973 Gaz. PaL 1973, 11, 180; Cass. civ. 27 April 1978: BICA 1979, n. 4, p. 12.

  13. 13.

    Hérail, n. 556.

  14. 14.

    Pro: Cass. Civ., 3 March 2011, 10-11.529.

  15. 15.

    An exception has to be made for banking cooperatives. Banking cooperative legislation is diverse but, if it requires a limit to the number of votes per member, the legislation does not provide any more precision than that which is already provided in L. 1947.

  16. 16.

    About 6 % per year nowadays.

  17. 17.

    This chapter only presents the general principles, which could give a false sense of reality but it is impossible to explain all the very detailed and accurate solutions.

  18. 18.

    Being the most powerful among the exempt cooperatives, their case is the most controversial.

  19. 19.

    Rapport public du Conseil d’Etat, Les associations et la loi de 1901, Cent ans après, 2000.

  20. 20.

    De Vendeuil (1993), p. 55.

  21. 21.

    Loi n. 2001-420 du 15 mai 2001, about the nouvelle régulation économique, JORF 16 May 2001.

References

  • Coutant L (1950) L’évolution du droit coopératif de ses origines à 1950. Éditions Matot-Braine, Reims (France).

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  • De Vendeuil S (1993) Les entreprises coopératives se modernisent. Lexisnexis, JCPE Act. 100213.

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  • Mestre J (1996) Réflexions introductives sur l’originalité du droit coopératif. Revue de la recherche juridique Presses universitaires d'Aix-Marseille, vol. 2, p. 425, Marseille (France).

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  • Meynet W (2012) Code de l’économie sociale et solidaire, Larcier, Bruxelles.

    Google Scholar 

Further Reading

  • Hérail M (1999) Le lien coopératif, Contribution à l’étude du lien coopératif au sein des sociétés coopératives, thèse Rennes I

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  • Hiez D (2011) Droit coopÕratif. la Semaine Juridique, Entreprises, Lexisnexis. JCPE 1150

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Law, Economics and Finance, University of Luxembourg, Luxembourg, Luxembourg

    David Hiez

Authors
  1. David Hiez
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Correspondence to David Hiez .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Buenos Aires, Argentina

    Dante Cracogna

  2. University of Molise, Campobasso, Italy

    Antonio Fici

  3. University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland

    Hagen Henrÿ

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Hiez, D. (2013). France. In: Cracogna, D., Fici, A., Henrÿ, H. (eds) International Handbook of Cooperative Law. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-30129-2_17

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