The article aims to systematize the historiographic knowledge of Klaipeda’s self-government and local administration, to show research problems and to propose potential directions for prospective research. The author distinguishes three stages in the development of local administration, analyses the particularities of these stages, explores the state of local administrative structures, competence, and mechanisms, and discusses the accessibility of sources necessary for research of such topics. Special attention is given to the research results of administration systems from 1945-1990, as well as a review of issues related to the legal status between a sovereign and the citizenry of Klaipėda while it was part of the state of the Teutonic Order.