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[JJ] Good evening everyone
Today's session is being streamed
so hello to those watching online.
The EIE is honoured to welcome
José María de la Cuesta,
Emeritus Professor at
the Complutense University of Madrid.
He also teaches at
universities in Navarra, la Rioja,
and has been published several times.
I believe him to be
one of the most prestigious people
in the field of commercial law
in Spain.
It is an honour to have him here,
and we hope this talk
will be interesting
for all of you.
[JMC] Many thanks, Jorge,
and thanks to the Institute,
for inviting me to be here.
[JJ] Today's theme is 'freedom'.
I want to start by asking:
What is Spain's opinion of entrepreneurs?
And how important is 'freedom' to a businessman's role in Spain?
The most definitive thing in life
is the idea of the law
and living within the law.
The law is what upholds our freedom.
Freedom goes hand in hand with knowledge
to enable the perception of right and wrong
and thereby makes us responsible for our own actions.
It projects a central path for mankind to follow,
especially for businessmen.
Because in the end,
business activity is human activity par excellence,
as it comes through freedom,
through creativity,
and through spontaneity.
The word 'business'
has never been reduced
- at least in classical terms -
to a purely economic meaning.
I am struck by the current eagerness
to teach entrepreneurship
- I don't mean here in the EIE -
I mean to children; it does happen.
But children need to learn to be children.
Yet they end up behaving like entrepreneurs.
From the moment they are born,
we destroy their natural condition.
Why do I say destroy?
Because we ourselves have been destroyed by responsibility.
We aren't held accountable for our own actions.
Spain, of all European countries,
is probably the least appreciative of businessmen.
Spain is the most distrusting of businessmen.
But business is something that goes well with mankind:
let man act, because human action is enterprise.
And what is human action?
It's what praxeology teaches us:
"We all try to make the most of any action in our lives with the minimum resources."
The defining aspect is the spark of invention.
Resources don't run out; what they have been teaching is a lie.
Creativity and trust.
Entreprise is a generous action.
It shows mankind's generosity.
Because it is innovative action
and one which creates resources
and brings them to those who need them.
It allows work to be shared with respect to each person
and their attitude and styles:
some are better at some things than others
so thanks to free exchange of contracts
we can each dedicate ourselves to what we are good at.
A selfish entrepreneur,
or one who only thinks about his own gain;
what is that about?
Entreprise is quintessentially helpful by character.
The top 40 businesses that we think about in Spain
(we all know which ones they are)
They belong to the same line of politics
and by definition, they are parasites.
People believe that the market is
a man with a beard, or a stunning woman.
The market is an idea, a locus,
where you can find humanity's needs
and the ways they can be met.
In order for the market to exist,
the State cannot intervene
in its operational activity.
The State has to regulate the proper functioning of the market,
but not to intervene in the running of the market.
It could be said that it's a bad thing
that Company A is alongside Company B.
But surely, if they work hard,
they can offer their products at a better price and under better conditions
than before they were together
and who are you to stop that?
Freedom for the market, freedom for the entrepreneur.
With all its Institutions,
- which belong to the market, so it's not theft,
in other cases, yes, but not this time -
And freedom for the market that entrepreneurs have to be part of.
What we're talking about is an injustice which angers me,
and you too I suppose,
that everything bad that happens directly affects the market.
Things just stop working.
How can you have the audacity
to lay the responsibility and blame with the market
for over-regulating itself,
when precisely this regulation was originally established by mankind?
[JJ] You have published a few times an idea that, if possible,
I would like to explore today,
which is the idea of State abstention
with regards to what entrepreneurs and businesses do.
[JMC] It's really pathetic, what we're seeing worldwide.
Even as far as Obama, who I really don't believe in whatsoever,
he's been re-elected but then that's that.
The right to healthcare, a home, work, the environment...
Do you really think these are rights?
The Law has very little to do with justice,
only in an objective way really -
it doesn't have to deliver people to heaven
in the hands of the Guardia Civil.
The mission of the Law
is not that people can get off the hook.
But what the Law shouldn't do
is prevent someone who wants to save himself
from doing so.
It should be restrictive
in the same way as is understood
and practised in the English-speaking world.
The State has as much to do with the Law
as I do with the Bishop of Túy.
Another invention, coined by the Buddhas,
is transversal legislation.
That's all I have to say on the matter.
What is it? Well
the State Budget Law, changed every year
on 28 December (like a 'Fools' Day law')
is modified until there are
hundreds of vitally important laws
such as the Law on Coporations,
Insolvency Law, etc.
not to mention Tax or Administration Laws.
Hundreds! I'm not kidding.
Hundreds of Budget Laws.
This monstrosity has been sacramentalised
by the said constitutional tribunal.
Given the complexity of modern times,
it's impossible to go without the remedy
that grants transversality of legislation.
Learn about the law.
Or pay a legal advisor to keep you up-to-date
about transversality and motorisation.
Through intervention,
through worrying about my health,
or about my children,
or about my grandkids being obese,
or other problems like that,
the State worries.
Careful - if 43% people when asked if they were worried
said that yes they were,
that's terrible.
We need the Law.It gives us a point of reference
for how to look after our things,
and for how other people will do the same.
Private Law is essentially to do with families,
inheritance, succession, property,
or effectively civil and commercial Law.
In Public Law, there used to be something called
Political Law, which doesn't exist now,
it's called Constitutional Law now
(significant, don't you think?)
From the beginning, it's all to do with the text.
Not to do with knowing the political aspects
which is what I was always taught.
Commercial Law is an economic right,
because businesses not only have to follow standards
for contracts of distribution, franchising,
renting, leasing, or financial contracts,
but they are also faced with the problem of
regulating their activity.
Then we get on to regulation laws.
It's much more heroic to be
an entrepreneur in these conditions.
But I encourage you not to
tolerate it any further.
[JJ] Many thanks.
Having heard JMC's thoughts, we'd like to open the floor
to a few questions
but first a brief summary of what was said:
JMC praised entrepreneurs;
criticised State involvement in the economy;
extolled free competition;
criticised overregulation of motorised legislation,
and of 'transversal legislation;'
he spoke about human rights,
against various generations of human rights
on the grounds of intervention therein;
and I would like to finish with
some of JMC's words:
"Man is a needy being;
the best protection for him is freedom."