Bar's Statute was not preserved, but the municipal laws could be reconstructed on the basis of the preserved qotations from the statutes of Kotor and Budva, and by comparing them with other legal documents.
According to information from 1247, the social system of Bar was organized in the following way: the head of all citizens, the "elders" and the common folk (seniores ai populas) was the prince. At the time the citizens' community was replaced by the communal council or the concilium.
The administration of the town was handed over to the Minor and Major Councils. The Major Council which represented the most powerful citizens, could replace the people's assembly and become the gathering point for the entire class. The Minor Council was a governing and executive body together with the prince.
The existence of the Secret Council was recordet in 1442 and 1502, as the "coseglio segreto" but it is assumed that the Secret Councel existed before this as well. The Secret Councel could meet in the event on an imminent war threat.
In the townadministration there were different offices who dealt with the municipial duties. Instead of the comes - prince, during the the Venetian rule there was the office of potestate (podestat) or rector who passed sentences and ordered their execution. By his side were the chancellor, judges and a knight, whom he paid out of his own income.
the judges ()mentioned in 1350, 1369 and 1372) held sessions with the rector and declared their opinions. Concillari helped the judges, whereas the chancellorscouncillors oerformed professional duties for the municipal administration.
The envoys and the delegates presented the providurs, the senate or other high magistrates of the Venetian authorities with the requests, wishes, rights, privileges, disagreements and the difficulties in the municipality of Bar.
The procurators auctioried the confiscated lands on behalf of the muinicipality. They performed surveys, they represented the municipality and the town folk before the court, they determined some taxes and settled acconts.
The knight took care of the order, closing of the town gates, guards and the protectin of the podestat (potestate). The captain (capitaneus) had less authority than the town prince, and he dealt with the issues of town security. The castellan(castelan, 1444), paid close attention to the security of the town and no one was allowed to leave the town area without permission from the municipa authorities. He commanded the artillery, supervised the closing of the town gates and forts, he monitored the guards.
The title of duke was a regent office during the time of the despotate, and from 1499 it only related to the chief of the town police.
Among the military duties, the crossbowmen are mentioned (they worked with the balestra) in 1444 as are the bombardier-gunmen, and it is certain that there were heavily armoured mercenaries from different areas.
Among other positions, the customs officers are mentioned in 1335, lawyers, auditori and fontegari who took care of the wheat and water supply.
According to information from 1512, it was remembered that the Bar aristocracy consosted of 74 families with more than 400 members. given that the total population, including merchants who spent their time in the town, monks, officers who werre not originally from Bar, newcomers and adventurers, amounted to 5000 people, this means that there was a rather large number of members of the nobility.
As a comparison, it is interesting to note that Dubrovnik, which was much larger and important town had 152 noble families in the first half of the 16th century.