Search results

The aim of the research is to analyze the role of the consumer in a detailed way. Firstly I defined the concepts of "consumption" and "consumer", giving relief to the socio-economic theories that have characterized the subject during recent years,and taking in consideration the process of consumption and the behavioral and decisional theories proper of the consumer. Moreover, I have deeply analyzed the consumer under the juridical aspect, from the mere legal recognition to the trial and the efforts sustained by the European Legislator during the last years with the purpose of creating a system of common rules with the final goal of guaranteeing a high-level of protection to the consumer in international contracts and assuring the correct operation of the Single Internal Market founding the discipline on a competitive model. Great relief is given to the "Rome I Regulation" on the choice of the law aplicable to contracts and to the "Bruxelles Convention" on the competent court.

Co-operative Law has a long tradition in European countries, like the Industrial and Provident Act in the United Kingdom in1852 or the Prussian Co-operatives Act in 1867. The European Union was no born to create a common law but to remove restrictions on the freedom of establishment. In 2003 the Statute for a European Co-operative Society was approved, but harmonization of European co-operative legislation was never carried out, not even for its most importante distinctive elements. In 2012 the European Commission presented a report about the application of the SCE Statute showing that the SCE Regulation has had relatively little success. The differences between the different legal systems are considerable, both in forma and in content. European Commission expressed its intention not to carry out the harmonization of the European co-operative legislation directly, but to support the harmonization proposals that the co-operative sector presented to it. El derecho cooperativo tiene una larga tradición en los países europeos, desde la Industrial and Provident Act de 1952 en Reino Unido o la Ley prusiana de cooperativas de 1867. La Unión Europea no nació para crear un derecho común sino para surprimir las restricciones a la libertad de establecimiento. In 2003 se aprobó el Estatuto de la Sociedad Cooperativa Europea, pero nunca se ha llevado a cabo una armonización de la legislación cooperativa en Europa, ni siquiera en relación con sus elementos más característicos. En 2012, la Comisión Europea presentó un informe sobre la aplicación del Estatuto de la SCE que mostraba que esta regulación había tenido relativamente poco éxito. Las diferencias entre los diferentes sistemas legales son considerables, tanto formalmente como por su contenido. La Comisión Europea ya manifestó su intención de no llevar a cabo la armonización de la legislación cooperativa europea directamente, pero sí apoyar las propuestas de armonización presentadas por el sector cooperativo.

This article discusses the recent debate between Jürgen Habermas and Wolfgang Streeck on the relationship between capitalism and democracy in Europe. The article recounts Streeck's analysis of the financial crisis, the transformation of the tax state into the debt state, and the development of the EU towards an international consolidation state, which informs Streeck's call for a retreat from Europe to the nation-state as the last line of defense against neoliberal capitalism. The article proceeds to sketch Habermas's criticism of Streeck's argument, and it illustrates how Habermas' proposal for a reconstitution of the EU as a supranational democracy is motivated by foundational concerns in his critical theory of society. Finally, the article argues that the debate results in an unresolved dilemma: while only a democratized EU can reestablish the supremacy of politics over globalized markets, the EU is more likely to become further entrenched as an international consolidation state.