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Development of the Legal Regulation of the Cooperative in Slovakia Vývoj Právnej Úpravy Družstiev Na Slovensku

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Development of the Legal Regulation of the Cooperative in Slovakia Vývoj Právnej Úpravy Družstiev Na Slovensku 10.2478/eual-2019-0007 DEVELOPMENT OF THE LEGAL REGULATION OF THE COOPERATIVE IN SLOVAKIA VÝVOJ PRÁVNEJ ÚPRAVY DRUŽSTIEV NA SLOVENSKU Zuzana ILKOVÁ – Zuzana LAZÍKOVÁ – Anna BANDLEROVÁ – Jarmila LAZÍKOVÁ* I. Introduction the fi eld of agricultural business. The aim of the paper is to point out, on the basis of a legal Emphasizing the historical development and importance of ag- analysis, the development of the cooperative law from the end riculture for the national economy, it can be argued that social of the 1940s and on the basis of the comparison and logical relations in the area of regulating the forms of farming on land method of cognition point out the positives and negatives in have always been in the focus of the whole society. The social the development of agricultural cooperatives and the advan- interest aimed at regulating the legal relations of entities farm- tages of current legislation. The paper uses logical methods, ing on agricultural land has been refl ected in many legislative formal legal methods, and sociological methods, especially the adjustments in recent decades. Since the end of 1940s, “The methods of examining various documents that preceded or cooperative legal standards” have become the basic formal accompanied the creation of normative legal acts. The basic sources of the rights and obligations of entities active in the material on which the paper is based is legislation, legislative fi eld of agriculture. documents accompanying their creation, and professional ar- However, it should be stressed that the development of for- ticles and publications of experts focusing on the history of mal sources of law, as well as the subject of their regulation, agricultural cooperatives in Slovakia. refl ects and materializes the social conditions in which the rel- On the basis of available statistical data on the development evant legislation is created, i.e. in the material sources of law. of the structure of agricultural cooperatives and on the basis of legal analysis of legal regulations, which were the basic starting II. Material and Methods point for the regulation of cooperatives, we would like to em- phasize in this paper the legitimacy of the cooperative business Legal form of the cooperative underwent complicated develop- form in Slovakia under current market conditions. ment. At present, according to the applicable legislation, the cooperative is a business entity traditionally active mainly in Abstract (EN) The paper analyzes the development of the legislation of cooperative law Abstrakt (SK) since the late 1940s. It points out the positives, but also the negatives in Príspevok analyzuje vývoj legislatívy družstevného práva od konca the development of agricultural cooperative in Slovakia. The number of štyridsiatych rokov, pričom poukazuje na pozitívne, ale aj negatívne cooperatives, as well as the area of their farmed land decreased signifi - stránky vývoja poľnohospodárskych družstiev na Slovensku. Počet cantly after 1989 and the number of legal entities operating on the land družstiev, ako aj rozloha nimi obrábanej pôdy, sa po roku 1989 výrazne has expanded. In spite of this, however, according to the collected data, it znížili, avšak počet právnických osôb hospodáriacich na pôde sa zvýšil. can be stated that in 2018, cooperatives managed 34,25% of agricultural Napriek tomu však podľa zozbieraných údajov možno konštatovať, že land in Slovakia. Based on the available statistical data on the develop- v roku 2018 družstvá spravovali 34,25% poľnohospodárskej pôdy na ment of the structure of agricultural cooperatives and on the basis of legal Slovensku. Na základe dostupných štatistických údajov o vývoji štruktúry analysis of the legislation, the authors wish to emphasize the merits of the poľnohospodárskych družstiev a na základe právnej analýzy príslušnej cooperative form of business as well as the advantages of the coopera- legislatívy by autori chceli zdôrazniť podstatu družstevnej formy podnika- tives as a separate form of business under current market conditions. The nia, ako aj výhody družstiev ako samostatného podniku za súčasných cooperative, as a separated form of business, is still advantageous for all trhových podmienok. Družstvo ako samostatná forma podnikania je stále areas of business including the agricultural business. The advantage of a výhodné pre všetky oblasti podnikania vrátane poľnohospodárstva. V po- cooperative form of business is highlighted by its fl exibility, relative simple rovnaní s ostatnými formami podnikania majú družstvá výhodu najmä and more liberal than other legal form of business. v ich fl exbilite, relatívnej jednoduchosti a liberálnosti. Keywords (EN) K¾úèové slová (SK) cooperative, legal form, legal relations, development of legislation, agri- družstvo, právna forma, právne vzťahy, vývoj legislatívy, poľnohos- culture podárstvo * Slovak University of Agriculture in Nitra, Slovakia 6 III. Results and Discussion ship in Országos központi hitelszövetkezet in Budapest, or any other cooperative headquarters located outside the territory of Historical development of cooperatives in Slovakia the Czechoslovak State. th In 2019, we commemorate the 174 anniversary of the be- Despite the unifi cation efforts in the period of the fi rst ginning of the cooperative movement in Slovakia with the Czechoslovak Republic, the commercial law failed to unify (2). foundation of the Association Gazdovský spolok in the village During the entire existence of the fi rst Czechoslovak Republic, Sobotište (founded on February 9, 1845), which was the fi rst the second Czechoslovak Republic and the Slovak State, the credit cooperative in the world and it was initiated by teacher former Austrian Commercial Code of 1863 still applied in the Samuel Jurkovič. The guiding principles of this Association Czech lands and the Commercial Code of 1875 still applied were voluntary entry, self–help, reciprocity and self–govern- in Slovakia. This means that the legislation of the cooperative ment. According to its model, other cooperatives and associa- was also split into two commercial codes. The legal situation tions were established in almost all of Slovakia. Although, due lasted until 1950, when the Civil Code no. 141/1950 Coll. has to the complex socio–political relations in the Austro–Hungar- been adopted, which repealed both commercial codes, except ian Monarchy, this Association only operated for 6 years (its for the provisions governing cooperative law. Figure 1 is an activity ceased on January 28, 1851), it had far–reaching sig- overview of the number of cooperatives in the mid–1920s nifi cance for the beginnings of the cooperative movement and throughout the Czechoslovak Republic. From most of the total the realization of cooperative ideas. Credit cooperatives were number of 14 924 cooperatives, 3 479 were agricultural, pur- the holders of the basic ideas of the cooperative movement, chasing, selling and production cooperatives and 5 852 were namely self–help and mutual support. They were non–profi t agricultural credit cooperatives(3). associations aimed at solving the social and economic prob- The legal norms adopted at the end of the 1940s and the lems of their members, which spontaneously arose from the beginnings of the 1950s are a refl ection of the socio–economic initiative of the founders and not by the top–down normative changes that took place in the Czechoslovak Republic(4), which regulation of the state. means in the material sources of law. The constitutional devel- One of the fi rst legal regulations of cooperatives in our ter- opment after “February 1948” was infl uenced by the political ritory, as stated by, can be considered the Hungarian Com- conditions of its origin and the changes that occurred in all mercial Code, legal article XXXVII/1875, supplemented by areas of the state’s social life. The Constitution of the Czecho- the Cooperative Law, the legal article XXIII/1898 on economic slovak Republic , established a people–democratic establish- (1) and trade credit cooperatives . The general regulation of co- ment where the people are the source of all power in the state. operatives was enshrined together with trading companies in In particular, cooperatives concern Article IV, Section 3 of the the fi rst part of the Hungarian Commercial Code (§1 – 257). Constitution: “For procurement of the public things and for the ex- A cooperative has been set up as a form of trading company, ercise of its democratic rights, the people create voluntary organiza- consisting of an indefi nite number of members, created for the tions, in particular political, trade union, cooperative and cultural, purpose of joint business management or other economic pur- women’s and youth organizations and sports organizations”. pose. The regulation distinguished the founding of the coop- In Chapter 8, Section 146, the Constitution enshrines an erative, the creation of the cooperative statutes and the creation economic establishment in which the means of production of the cooperative by registration in the register court, further are either of national property or property of people’s coop- differentiated cooperatives with unlimited liability – solidar- eratives, or are privately owned by individual producers. The ity liability of members through the entire property beyond Constitution of the Czechoslovak Republic regulated people’s the possibilities of cooperative assets, if it was not enough to cooperatives (§157 Section 1 and Section 2) as associations cover debts, and cooperatives with limited liability, members
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