La loi sur l’économie sociale et solidaire : un regard juridique bienveillant

The law passed last July was presented as a major piece of legislation that would reinvigorate and restructure the social and solidarity economy. Apart from official statements, reactions to the law have been guarded or critical. These reservations mirror the expectations that the law generated, expectations that a lawyer might consider unrealistic. The law does not appear to be fundamentally different from its counterparts in Spain and Quebec at least in its organisational aspects. In the French context, however, the law is a departure from the previous law in 1992, which had comparable ambitions. Besides the influence of the issues raised by the solidarity economy and social enterprises, the law features fewer attractions for capitalist mechanisms and reaffirms and strengthens principles that are more specific to the social and solidarity economy.