The wide range of legislation existing on cooperative societies is the result of historical and political circumstances that go beyond the decision of the Constitutional Court of 1983 accepting the constitutionality of Act 1/1982, of 1 February, on Cooperatives, of the Basque Country, which was followed by others from other autonomous communities until the current legal cooperative framework was reached. This stemmed from the fact that the commercial nature of cooperative societies had not been accepted by the national legislator before 1979, when the first Statute of Autonomy was published. However, the discussions and conclusions on the commercial nature of cooperative societies have been present in the legal doctrine far before that date. This paper briefly reviews the legal concepts and grounds that have been provided with regard to cooperatives through to their current perceived status as commercial societies.  Received: 03 July 2017 Accepted: 26 September 2017