As the Austro-Hungarian forces took control of Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1878, they immediately began the process of integrating the country into the Austro-Hungarian political and judicial framework. However, to better facilitate the process of integration, important changes needed to be made – implement education reform, launch an official newspaper and publish the laws of the land, both existing and newly adopted, in the national language. The laws, which formed the cornerstone of the new administrative system of Bosnia and Herzegovina, were eventually published in The Collection of the Laws and Regulations for Bosnia and Herzegovina in both German, as Sammlung der Gesetze und Verordnungen für Bosnien und die Hercegovina, and in the national language (so called zemaljski jezik or Landessprache) as Sbornik zakona i naredaba za Bosnu i Herzegovinu. This was the practice in all provinces and countries of the Austro-Hungarian Empire from 1850. The publishing reform was underway with the first issue of Bosansko-hercegovačke novine, which changed its name to Sarajevski list in 1881. The dissertation will show that the Standard Croatian language played a more important role in the early years of the Austro-Hungarian occupation than previous research suggested and that its influence did not diminish with General Filipović’s departure, as suggested by some scholars of the history of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The first part of the dissertation deals with the historical overview of the sociopolitical and cultural circumstances in Bosnia and Herzegovina immediately prior to the Austro-Hungarian occupation in 1878 and onwards. For the better understanding of the subject matter, it is important to have a grasp of the different and sometimes intertwining views of Croatia and Serbia concerning the position, the role and the future of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The situation was made even more difficult by the likewise different AustroHungarian views on how to organise the new province. This is followed by an overview of the Austro-Hungarian cultural policy of the early years of the occupation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, with a special view to the launch of the newspaper Bosansko-hercegovačke novine, which in its early days served as the official gazette of the new administration. The language of the first few volumes of The Collection of the Laws and Regulations for Bosnia and Herzegovina, spanning the years from 1881 to 1884, is analysed in the subsequent section of the dissertation. The available issues of its predecessor, the Bosanskohercegovačke novine are also taken into consideration. Until the second half of 1883,the official government newsletters in the Latin script were written in the language and using spelling introduced in 1878 during the brief rule of general Filipović. The dissertation will therefore concentrate on the issues of The Collection published in 1881, when the first edition in German was published alongside the edition in the national language (so called zemaljski jezik) and up to 1884 and the changes in the language and spelling of The Collection itself. The language of The Collection was analysed on the spelling, grammatical and lexical level. Concluding remarks, contributions, sources and references are given in the final chapters.