The purpose of the article is to analyse provisions of national normative and legal acts on the use and substantive interpretation of a concept of “rural territories” (“rural areas”) as an object of management. Research methods. Theoretical basis of the article was the dialectical method of cognition and systematic method for managing development of constituent rural territories of Ukraine and provisions of normative and legal acts on the regulation of these issues. Functional and comparative analysis were used. Research results. Practice of using and meaningful interpretation of the concept of “rural territories” (“rural areas”) was worked out with the analysis of their characteristics according to four normative legal acts of the state. The use of three criteria, namely territorial, industrial and settlement, were installed for their characterization. It is noted that the basic Law of Ukraine, namely the Constitution of Ukraine, establishes the use of the territorial principle in the administrative and territorial division of the state. Elements of scientific novelty. Differentiated approach to interpretation of a concept of “rural territories” (“rural areas”) was proposed for the preparation of profile and non-core normative and legal acts. Examples of their respective characteristics were presented. It was proposed to use two criteria (territorial and settlement) in the characterization of a concept in specialized legislative acts, in which rural territories should be interpreted as “territories encompassing settlements, within a “red line” of villages and big villages, and settlements out of a certain administrative and territorial unit”. Practical significance. Differentiate approach and criteria to characterize a concept of “rural territories” (“rural areas”) for the development of non-core normative and legal acts will facilitate rationalization of law-making work and clearer definition of a component of the territories as management objects. Refs.: 26