Social enterprise lawmaking is a growth industry. In the United States alone, over the last few years, there has been a proliferation of state laws establishing specific legal forms for social enterprises. The situation is not different in Europe, where the process began much earlier than in the...

This article is a revised and updated version of an earlier publication2. It begins by looking at the issue of the definition of the third sector arguing in favour of a coming together of the concepts of civil society and social economy - what they share as core values outweighing their...