The article examines the formation of communal land ownership law, formation of legal regulation in the field of consolidating the status of territorial communities as subjects of communal property, the impact of decentralization of powers processes on resolving the issue of the legal regime of territorial communities’ lands and united territorial communities’ lands, determination of scientific approaches to the formation of the model of communal land ownership law in Ukraine. It is updated the legislator’s inconsistency in determining the principles of building the institution of communal land ownership law, lack of a well-founded concept of communal property law, legislative contradictions of approaches to the creation of sustainable local self-government in Ukraine, based on the priority of land interests of territorial communities. Scientific attention is paid to preconditions for determining the constitutional status of territorial communities, legislative consolidation of the grounds for the formation of communal land ownership in the state, solving the problem of the definition of «communal land ownership law» absence in current legislation. Focused attention on legitimization of the powers to exercise the communal property law through the solution of the issue of land and legal competence of territorial communities, improvement of their status as subjects, who exercise the right of communal ownership of land directly or through local governments, the exercise of the right of communal ownership of land in the ways specified in the land law. According to the study it is established that the Constitution of Ukraine has provided the necessary prerequisites for the formation of a fundamentally new land system in the field of communal property on the land of communities. An important scientific task in modern conditions is improving the legal regulation of land and legal competence of territorial communities as subjects of communal land ownership for the sustainable development of territories. It is determined that the acceleration of administrative and land reforms will contribute to the full legitimization of the united territorial communities and the formation of territorial communities as equal subjects of land ownership. Keywords: territorial communities, decentralization, local government reform, communal land ownership