This chapter is about law. Laws at the local, state and even national levels currently limit the efficacy of collaborative business networks. The chapter examines the dramatic extent to which property, contract, tax, business, labor and employment, and financing laws are tailored to support particular capitalist institutions. For example, American corporations typically are not constrained by formal or informal rules or norms to hire local workers. This and other forms of corporate freedom limit opportunities for urban workers, for example by leaving them with few options other than to start their own businesses. More broadly, the regulatory framework limits the number of paths available to urban residents for earning income, and it makes those paths difficult to follow. As this chapter discusses, because they are tailored to supporting a more “competitive” style of capitalism, American regulations largely fail to support the types of collaborative business networks described in this book.