Legal Aspects of the Credit Union Movement: An Analysis of the Evolution of Saskatchewan Credit Union Legislation
Date
1987
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
ORCID
Type
Degree Level
Masters
Abstract
This year is the 50th anniversary of the enactment of
The Credit Union Act of Saskatchewan and the establishment of
the credit union movement in Saskatchewan.
The purpose of this thesis is to examine whether credit
unions have changed from their original nature, namely
whether credit unions nowadays still retain their original
social and economic functions. This question became more
serious in the 1970s and may be largely answered through
summarizing and analysing the evolution of The Credit Union
Act and some legal problems which effected the credlt union
movement. In other words, this thesis seeks to understand
those changes credit unions have undergone, and from which
have arisen a few issues relating credit union legal status.
The thesis begins with an introduction to the background
of establishing credit unions in Canada. Desjardins
definitely played a key role in this process. As there are a
few authors who have already written quite a lot about
Desjardins and his role, this thesis only focuses on
analysing the features of a few early credit union models. By
doing this, one can see that early Saskatchewan credit unions
mainly took after the Nova Scotian model, which evolved from
the early Quebec caisses populaires and the early American
models. All of the early North American credit union models
were based on earlier European models.
_Part II of Chapter 1 studies early credit union
legislation in North America, which influenced later credit
union legislation in other provinces of Canada, including
Saskatchewan The Credit Union Act, 1937, the first credit
union legislation in the province.
This thesis analyses the evolution of The Credit Union
Act of Saskatchewan in a rather detailed way from its
enactment through every change during the period 1937-1985.
Although the Canadian credit union movement did not initially
start in Saskatchewan, the credit unions of Saskatchewan
gradually, in certain aspects, achieved a more important
position in developing the Canadian credit union movement.
Therefore, it is useful to look at the features in the
evolution of Saskatchewan credit union legislation.
The other purpose of Chapter 2 is to try to prove that
(1) credit unions have indeed changed a great deal; (2) these
changes have been based on credit union member needs; (3)
compared with other financial institutions, credit unions
retain some of their uniquenesses, which show that credit
-
unions still keep their original social and economic
functions.
Chapter 3 of this thesis focuses on a few legal issues
that credit unions have met and analyses the issues from
which they arose.
Before the analysis of these legal problems, Part II of
Chapter 3 introduces and analyses some credit union
definitions. This has helped the author to understand the
nature of credit unions. Subsequently, cases relating credit
union legal status and the opinions of some scholars about
the constitutional position of credit unions are analysed.
Finally, conclusions are drawn on two questions. One
concerns the nature of credit unions. The other seeks to
answer the question of constitutional jurisdiction over
credit unions.
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Citation
Degree
Master of Laws (LL.M.)
Department
Law
Program
Law