We want to live in a world where communities can create innovative and satisfying means for people to provide for and exchange with each other.
SELC’s Community Currencies Program supports economies based on barter, gifts, time banks, and local currencies by providing legal resources and research on regulatory issues, including tax law, employment law, and securities law.
Why Community Currencies?
A community without dollars is not a community without wealth. Every community, no matter how money poor, has a wealth of abilities and the capacity to create material resources. Dollars give us an organized means of sharing and exchanging those abilities and resources. However, when there is a scarcity of dollars, our economy need not grind to a frightening halt. We need only find additional ways to share and exchange. Alternative systems for exchange could be as organized as a local currency, online barter network, or time bank, or as casual as swapping and gift-based gestures among friends and community members. This vast realm of economic possibility churns up new legal grey areas which are the focus of SELC’s research and education.
SELC’S PROJECTS AND RESOURCES:
- Legal Resource Library: CommunityCurrenciesLaw.org is SELC’s legal resource library on barter, time banks, and local currencies. It is a place to collaborate and share legal research and practical information related to these topics.
- Workshops: SELC has developed a one-hour workshop on the legalities of barter, time banks, and local currencies. This workshop will soon be offered as a webinar. If you are interested in attending or hosting a workshop on these topics, check our events page or contact SELC for more information.
- Legal Guides:
Money Soup: A Legal Guide to Bartering, Giving, and Getting Stuff Without Dollars, by Janelle Orsi
Practicing Law in the Sharing Economy, Chapter 5, New Kinds of Exchange
- Legal Services: Beginning in 2013, SELC will offer legal advice and services to time banks, local currencies, and barter groups around the United States.
- Advocacy: Along with friends and partners across California, SELC is developing a new bill to revise outdated California laws that currently prohibit the circulation of local currencies.
- Read about our proposed bill and the importance of local currencies
- Sign our petition to support the California Community Currencies Act!