A voluntary group or union (also sometimes called a voluntary organization, common-interest association, association, or society) is a group of individuals who enter into an agreement, usually as volunteers, to form a body (or organization) to accomplish a purpose. Common examples include trade associations, trade unions, learned societies, professional associations, service organizations, and environmental groups.
All such associations reflect freedom of association in ultimate terms (members may choose whether to join or leave), although membership is not necessarily voluntary in the sense that one's employment may effectively require it via occupational closure. For example, in order for particular associations to function effectively, they might need to be mandatory or at least strongly encouraged, as is true of trade unions. Because of this, some people prefer the term common-interest association to describe groups which form out of a common interest, although this term is not widely used or understood.
Voluntary associations may be incorporated or unincorporated; for example, in the US, unions gained additional powers by incorporating. In the UK, the terms voluntary association or voluntary organisation cover every type of group from a small local residents' association to large associations (often registered charities) with multimillion-pound turnover that run large-scale business operations (often providing some kind of public service as subcontractors to government departments or local authorities).
Voluntary association is also used to refer to political reforms, especially in the context of urbanization, granting individuals greater freedoms to associate in civil society as they wished, or not at all.
Differences by jurisdictions In many jurisdictions no formalities are necessary to start an association. In some jurisdictions, there is a minimum for the number of persons starting an association.
Some jurisdictions require that the association register with the police or other official body to inform the public of the association's existence. This could be a tool of political control or intimidation, and also a way of protecting the economy from fraud.
In many such jurisdictions, only a registered association (an incorporated body) is a juristic person whose members are not responsible for the financial acts of the association. Any group of persons may, of course, work as an informal association, but in such cases, each person making a transaction in the name of the association takes responsibility for that transaction, just as if it were that individual's personal transaction.
There are many countries where the formation of truly independent voluntary associations is effectively proscribed by law or where they are theoretically legally permitted, but in practice are persecuted; for example, where membership brings unwelcome attention from police or other state agencies.
History
Voluntary groups are a broad and original form of nonprofit organizations, and have existed since ancient history. In Ancient Greece, for example, there were various organizations ranging from elite clubs of wealthy men (hetaireiai) to private religious or professional associations.Ascough, Richard S. "Greco-Roman Philosophic, Religious, and Voluntary Associations". In Community Formation in the Early Church and the Church Today. Edited by Richard N. Longenecker, 3–24. Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 2002
In The WEIRDest People in the World, the anthropologist Joseph Henrich identified the enormous growth of voluntary associations as a key characteristic of preindustrial Western Europe,"...the medieval Catholic Church inadvertently altered people's psychology by promoting a peculiar set of prohibitions and prescriptions about marriage and the family that dissolved the densely interconnected clans and kindreds in western Europe into small, weak and disparate nuclear families. The social and psychological shifts induced by this transformation fueled the proliferation of voluntary associations, including guilds, charter towns, and universities, drove the expansion of impersonal markets, and spurred the rapid growth of cities. By the High Middle Ages, catalyzed by these ongoing changes, WEIRDer ways of thinking, reasoning, and feeling propelled the emergence of novel forms of law, government, and religion while accelerating innovation and the emergence of Western science." with governmental administrative duties often handled by guilds (which often controlled towns).Kohn M. (2003). Merchant Associations in Pre-Industrial Europe. Ch. 16 in The Origins of Western Economic Success: Commerce, Finance, and Government in Preindustrial Europe . Merchant guilds enforced contracts through embargoes and sanctions on their members, and also adjudicated disputes. However, by the 1800s, merchant guilds had largely disappeared."The Rise and Fall of the Merchant Guilds: Re-thinking the Comparative Study of Commercial Institutions in Premodern Europe". Journal of Interdisciplinary History. Preprint . Economic historians have debated the precise role that merchant guilds played in premodern society and economic growth.Review of Institutions and European Trade: Merchant Guilds, 1000–1800 published in Reviews in History.
In the United Kingdom, craft guilds were more successful than merchant guildsStarr M. (1919). A Worker Looks At History, Ch. 7: The Guilds. Plebs League. Google Books entry. and formed livery companies which exerted significant influence on society.History of London The Guilds and Livery Companies . History.co.uk.
Hastings Rashdall was a major historian of the Middle Ages who set out the modern understanding of the medieval origins of European universities, noting that the earliest universities emerged spontaneously as "a scholastic Guild, whether of Masters or Students... without any express authorization of King, Pope, Prince or Prelate. They were spontaneous products of the instinct of association that swept over the towns of Europe in the course of the eleventh and twelfth centuries."
In Democracy in America, the French diplomat and political philosopher Alexis de Tocqueville observed that the elevated American propensity to associate distinguished American from European society."Americans of all ages, all conditions, all minds constantly unite. Not only do they have commercial and industrial associations in which all take part, but they also have a thousand other kinds: religious, moral, grave, futile, very general and very particular, immense and very small; Americans use associations to give fêtes, to found seminaries, to build inns, to raise churches, to distribute books, to send missionaries to the antipodes; in this manner they create hospitals, prisons, schools. Finally, if it is a question of bringing to light a truth or developing a sentiment with the support of a great example, they associate. Everywhere that, at the head of a new undertaking, you see the government in France and a great lord in England, count on it that you will perceive an association in the United States." Tocqueville, Alexis de (1840), Democracy in America (Harvey Mansfield and Delba Winthrop, trans., ed.; Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000) pp. 489-92.
Legal status A standard definition of an unincorporated association was given by Lord Justice Lawton in the English trust law case Conservative and Unionist Central Office v Burrell (1981): EWCA Civ 2, 1 WLR 522
In most countries, an unincorporated association does not have separate legal personality, and few members of the association usually enjoy limited liability. However, in some countries they are treated as having separate legal personality for tax purposes: for example, in the United Kingdom an unincorporated association is assessable to corporation tax. However, because of their lack of legal personality, legacies to unincorporated associations are sometimes subject to general common law prohibitions against purpose trusts.
Associations that are organized for profit or financial gain are usually called partnerships.In most common law legal systems, partnership is defined by statute as "the relationship which subsists between persons carrying on a business in common with a view of profit" A special kind of partnership is a co-operative which is usually founded on one person-one vote principle and distributes its profits according to the amount of goods produced or bought by the members. Associations may take the form of a non-profit organization or they may be not-for-profit corporations; this does not mean that the association cannot make benefits from its activity, but all the benefits must be reinvested. Most associations have some kind of document or documents that regulate the way in which the body meets and operates. Such an instrument is often called the organization's bylaws, constitution, regulations, or agreement of association.
Common law Australia In most states and territories in Australia, a similar set of laws allows not-for-profit associations to become legal entities with a limit to the liability of their members. An example of such a law, the Associations Incorporation Act 1985 that is in force in South Australia, allows for the creation of a legal entity able to buy and sell land and in general, enter into legally binding contracts. Many clubs and societies begin life as an unincorporated body and seek to attain incorporated status to protect its members from legal liability and in many cases to seek government financial assistance only available to an incorporated body. Clubs and societies wishing to incorporate must meet the provisions of the relevant state act and lodge their constitution with the corresponding state government authority.
Israel In Israel, many non-profit organizations (NPOs) and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) are established as registered nonprofit associations (Hebrew , plural ) (some are established as public benefit companies (Hebrew ) not to be confused with public benefit corporations). are regulated by the Associations Law, 1980. An is a body corporate, though not a company. An must register with the Rasham Ha'amutot ('Registrar of Amutot'), under the purview of the Rashut Hata'agidim ('Corporations Authority') of the Ministry of Justice.
The are distinguisged from the , which predated the State of Israel, and are regulated by the 1909 Ottoman Law on Associations, based on the French law of 1901. Since 2014 there were attempts to modernize the Ottoman Law and put in line with other non-profits.קול קורא והזמנה לשיח עם בעלי העניין והציבור: אגודות עותומניות – הגשת דיווחים לגבי פעילותן
United Kingdom England and Wales
Under English law, an unincorporated association consists of two or more members bound by the rules of a society which has, at some point in time, been founded.
Several theories have been proposed as to the way that such associations hold rights. A transfer may be considered to have been made to the association's members directly as joint tenants or tenants in common. Alternatively, the funds transferred may be considered to have been under the terms of a private purpose trust. Many purpose trusts fail for want of a beneficiary and this may therefore result in the gift failing. However, some purpose trusts are valid, and, accordingly, some cases have decided that the rights associated with unincorporated associations are held on this basis. The dominant theory, however, is that the rights are transferred to the members or officers absolutely, perhaps on trust for the members, but are importantly bound by contracts inter se.