Public International Cooperative Law

Abstract

Whatever the meaning and scope of sovereignty of states is in the global world, as far as cooperative law is concerned, legislatures are connected in a close net of supranational and regional governmental instruments, model laws, and rules established by private entities. These rules vary as to their juridical value. They are interrelated by the fact that their respective juridical value contributes to the argument that a public international cooperative law exists. In turn, this public international law shapes them, as well as national laws. The International Labor Organization’s (ILO) “Promotion of Cooperatives Recommendation, 2002” (ILO R. 193) constitutes the nucleus of this public international law. In addition to recommending a wide gamut of promotional policy measures, it calls repeatedly upon legislatures to provide for an adequate cooperative law. It is the first and only instrument of universal applicability on cooperative law adopted by an international governmental organization.