Abstract: This article is an introduction to a field of political economy that could be called theory of legal structure. Focusing on a special case, legal structure theory for worker cooperatives, also called self-managed firms, will develop the theory. Since the neo-classical marginalist revolution in the latter part of the nineteenth century, political economy has focused narrowly on questions of price and income determination rather than questions about the legal structure of economic enterprises. It is not just that questions of legal structure have not been answered. The problem has been that present day conventional economic theory does not contain the concepts needed to pose the questions in the first place. Hence the theory of legal structure presented here cannot be developed simply as a series of propositions and results using the orthodox conceptual repertoire. The theory of legal structure requires one to recognize that there are certain rights that are not property rights at all, namely, personal rights. Conventional economics focuses on commodities or goods, private goods or public goods.

　　Subjects: ECONOMICS; PRODUCER cooperatives; LABOR laws & legislation; CORPORATION law; INCOME; PRICES; MARGINAL utility; WELFARE economics; FINANCE, Public; Public Finance Activities; Regulation, Licensing, and Inspection of Miscellaneous Commercial Sectors; THEORY