Cooperatives and Corporate Social Responsibility (Forum for Company Law)
By Hagen Henrÿ, Research Director and Adjunct Professor, University of Helsinki
Research Director and Adjunct Professor Hagen Henrÿ
Abstract
The contribution on “Cooperatives and CSR” embeds CSR into the now universally accepted sustainable development paradigm. It starts from the premise that the paradigm needs translating to the enterprise level, including cooperatives, more precisely to the legal structure of cooperatives. Hypothesis/indication is that this legal structure of cooperatives lends itself well to contributing to sustainable development goals. Especially as far as the two aspects of sustainability are concerned, namely social justice and ecological balance, one may claim that cooperatives have juridized what other types of enterprises attend to under CSR. Concerning the first one in the form of an obligatio in solidum, concerning the second one in the form of obligatory social and societal audit. This makes a decisive difference.
Presentation - Henrÿ
Hagen Henrÿ is Research Director at the University of Helsinki Ruralia Institute (Finland). After his studies in law in Germany he completed postgraduate studies at the Institute for Development Studies at the University of Geneva and qualified as judge in Germany in 1981. He received a Cerftificat d’études in development law and a Diplôme d'études approfondies in development law from the University of Paris V, as well as a licentiate degree in law from the University of Helsinki. He was promoted Dr. iur. by and became an Adjunct Professor of comparative law at the University of Helsinki in 2004. Professor Henrÿ worked at the Universities of Saarbrücken, Geneva and Helsinki and as legal advisor to the German Federal Minister of Economy. Thereafter, he consulted on cooperative policy and legislation in some 50 countries for governmental as well as non-governmental organizations. He also worked as an advisor to Finnish law firms over many years. Before joining the University of Helsinki as Adjunct Professor, he was Chief of the Cooperative Branch of the International Labour Organization (ILO) from 2007 to 2011.