Abstract
Research on local communities has shown that there is a connection between the cultural activities of members of local societies and contemporary legal norms. In this sense legal norms are one factor molding the explicit face of local culture, and at the same time they influence the development of inhabitants’consciousness of belonging to a particular socio-geographical environment.
This study is an attempt to present some selected legal norms stimulating the formation of territorial self-government in the Czech Lands in the period 1848–1945. The discussion of the theme is based on the study of sources in the archives of the Community Offices of the Jihlava, Prachatice and Strakonice districts and the relevant academic literature.