Research On The Cooperative Economic Organizations In Urban And Rural Areas

Article 100 of the General Provisions of the Civil Code stipulates that "urban and rural cooperative economic organizations shall acquire the status of legal persons according to law" and places them in the category of special legal persons together with legal persons of government agencies,rural collective economic organizations and grass-roots mass autonomous organizations.At present,there are a large number of cooperative organizations in cities,towns and villages,which belong to the "cooperative economic organizations" stipulated in the general provisions of the civil law,to whom the property rights of the cooperative economic organizations ultimately belong,and to what rights and obligations their members have,and so on,but there is still no relatively unified conclusion.Relying on the relevant provisions of the existing legislation,especially the General Provisions of the Civil Law,this paper focuses on the development history of cooperative economic organizations and studies the relevant issues of urban and rural cooperative economic organizations in combination with the basic theory of legal persons.In addition to the introduction and conclusion,the body consists of five parts:The first part is the origin of the urban and rural cooperative economic organizations（hereinafter referred to as the urban and rural cooperative economic organizations）.In order to study the urban-rural cooperative economic organizations,it is of fundamental importance to review and sort out their development process and legislative trends.Since the birth of the cooperative economic organization,fairness has been an important value it pursues.China’s urban and rural cooperative economic organizations originated before the founding of New China.After the founding of New China,they experienced different stages of development,alienation and renewal.After the reform and opening up,the era cry of narrowing the gap between the rich and the poor and the gap between urban and rural areas needs the urban and rural cooperative economic organizations to be revitalized.In reality,not all cooperative economic organizations are legal persons.The legislative purpose of Article 100 ofthe General Provisions of the Civil Law is mainly to determine the civil subject identity of supply and marketing cooperatives.The research on urban and rural cooperative economic organizations should focus on supply and marketing cooperatives.Influenced by history and politics,China’s current legislation still regards cooperative economy as a collective ownership economy with limitations.The research on urban and rural cooperative economic organizations in the General Provisions of Civil Law should focus more on absorbing nutrients from the classic theories of world cooperatives and the development experiences of developed countries.The second part is the connotation of "urban and rural cooperative economic organizations" stipulated in the General Provisions of the Civil Law.The main characteristics of urban and rural cooperative economic organizations are summarized through the definition of "plus species difference",which includes the particularity in the five aspects of association,purpose,operation and distribution.The particularity of purpose,operation and distribution is the most essential characteristic that distinguishes urban and rural cooperative economic organizations from other organizations such as rural collective economic organizations,collective enterprises,associations,etc.On the basis of clarifying the characteristics of urban and rural cooperative economic organizations,the legal person of urban and rural cooperative economic organizations should also meet three requirements: first,it should have special legal person qualification.Special legal person is different from profit-seeking legal person,which mainly pursues efficiency.The "special" of urban and rural cooperative economic organizations is firstly that it is difficult to be clearly defined by the "profit-seeking+profit-distributing" standard.Secondly,it pursues fairness while pursuing efficiency and can assume some public service functions of the government.Second,the legal person qualification must be obtained according to law,but only the provisions of Article 100 of the General Provisions of the Civil Law cannot of course obtain the legal person qualification.The third is to implement cooperative system.The establishment of the special legal person status means that the unincorporated cooperative economic organizations,including partnerships,will be excluded fromthe scope of the statutory "urban and rural cooperative economic organizations",but this cannot be used to deny their reasonable legitimacy in reality.In the field of cooperative economy,the purpose of pursuing profits alone is not enough.The system design of farmers’ professional cooperatives reflects the pursuit of efficiency abroad and fairness at home,which is in line with the essential characteristics of urban and rural cooperative economic organizations.Its profit-seeking legal personality is the product of its own imperfect development.Considering from the perspective of conceptual logic and the integrity of the existing legal system,it should belong to the legal personality of urban and rural cooperative economic organizations.Distinguishing between urban and rural cooperative economic organizations and collective economic organizations is a complex but important task,which can be started from the aspects of their generation,purpose and distribution.The third part is the types of urban and rural cooperative economic organizations.The extension of urban and rural cooperative economic organizations is evolutionary,and most of the existing classification methods are incomplete.It is a more comprehensive way to examine urban and rural cooperative economic organizations from the horizontal and vertical dimensions.From the horizontal perspective,urban and rural cooperative economic organizations currently mainly include comprehensive service-oriented supply and marketing cooperatives,professional professional cooperative economic organizations and new cooperative financial organizations different from credit cooperatives.From the vertical perspective,urban and rural cooperative economic organizations include grass-roots cooperative economic organizations and joint cooperative economic organizations.The fourth part is about the property of urban and rural cooperative economic organizations.First of all,the urban and rural cooperative economic organizations have the legal person property ownership,and the members’ "ownership" of the organization is mainly reflected in the right to use,the right to benefit and the right to make decisions.Secondly,the property of the urban-rural cooperative economic organization mainly includes eight parts: 1.Members（non-members,associate members）contribute funds;2.State financial support;3.Provident fund;4.Donationof property;5.Profit from business activities;6.Intangible property;7.Property formed by maintaining and increasing the value according to law;8.Other legal property.Finally,the restrictions on the property of the urban and rural cooperative economic organizations are mainly static and dynamic.The static restrictions mainly include the limit of the amount of capital contribution and the limit of the form of capital contribution.The dynamic restrictions mainly include the order of profit distribution,the mode of distributable surplus distribution and the limitation of property distribution upon dissolution and liquidation.The fifth part is the suggestions on the construction and improvement of the system of urban and rural cooperative economic organizations.At this stage,the "Regulations on Supply and Marketing Cooperatives" is being formulated.In order for the legislation of supply and marketing cooperatives and even cooperative economic organizations to truly reflect the needs of reform and protect the rights of ordinary members,we must straighten out the property right system of cooperative economic organizations,protect the rights of members through binding clauses,and highlight the nature of supply and marketing cooperatives as agricultural service organizations in legislation.