TEACHING COOPERATIVISM IN LAW DEGREE COURSES IN ARGENTINA. THE CASE OF THE DEPARTMENT OF LAW AT UNIVERSIDAD NACIONAL DEL SUR

This article addresses “Cooperative Law” in Law degree courses in Argentine universities. First, we describe laws on cooperative education and the regulatory background for its inclusion in the basic curricular contents of the Law degree courses programmes in the Argentine Republic. Next, we describe how, in the last few years, the Argentine university system has adopted these basic curricular contents on cooperatives and mutual associations with different formats and modalities, as a requirement, among others, to obtain the undergraduate degree in Law. Next, we provide an overview of the history and the important presence of social economy in the southwest of Buenos Aires province, specifically in the city of Bahía Blanca, home of the Universidad del Sur. After that, we address the itinerary of the case under analysis, from the programme amendment put forward by the Department of Law, its rationale and approval by the university, to the creation of an optional subject at undergraduate level. Finally, the subject “Cooperative and Mutual Law” is described along with its background, rationale, objectives and syllabus, and presented as a fine example of the articulation between the academic sphere and the local and regional cooperative movement, both to strengthen the professional competence in the field and to increase the discipline and the sector’s visibility.