Beside an analysis of the library legislation of Hungary in the past almost 50 years, a detailed description is given of its social, political and cultural background. The first law analysed is government decision number 204-3/1952 on the development of the Hungarian library system. It had introduced a unified system of supervision and administration, and declared, that county and district libraries had to be organised. (The library network followed the structure of administration just like in the Soviet Union.) The regulations that followed dealt with the details such as stock taking, personnel requirements, etc. Libraries used to serve daily politics in the first instance, and in many cases professional work was at a disadvantage. The next very impor tant regulation was issued in 1956. It was the merit of this law-decree that in order to create a unified library system, it had decided to set up networks, and made provisions for general and supervisory services. As overlapping networks had come into be ing, the library system also became more complex, and it created many difficulties that the 18 thousand libraries belonged under the authority of some 20 ministries or national authorities. The decree enhanced the development of professionalism, however, it had the disadvantage of centralising the library system too much. In 1976 another library act was passed together with its enacting clause, that was followed by yet another one in 1978 on the structure and functioning of the library system. Networks re mained the most important elements of the library system, but regional and subject co-operation was also emphasised. Its problem was that the maintainer had become responsible for general supervision, and that no clear measures were taken so far as the re sponsibility for the financial management of libraries was concerned. At the end of the 1980s, after the political change, the changing needs of users and the shift in the activity of libraries made legal alterations necessary as well. In 1992 a draft was made that had not become an act. However, in 1995 another working group was set up for the elaboration of the law, and the Parliament passed the cultural law number CXL. in December 1997, of which library laws were a part of. Only public library services belong under the scope of the act. The support of libraries was linked to the criteria of becoming public service institutions. The notion of "public" was rather difficult to define, and parts regarding scientific and special library provision are also contradictory in many respects.