Civil society is the part of society that includes all governmental relations and public institutions that express different values, interests and needs of the people. As an alternative source of influence, civil society institutions remove the state power‘s monopoly, making the state apparatus to serve the interests of the people and citizens. As non-governmental organizations, social movements or group of interests, civil society institutions control the actions of state and promote the equality all citizens before the law. Thus, the purpose of this article is to explore the notion of an ‗enabling environment‘ for civil society, to determine the importance of developing a favorable legal framework and the mechanisms of civil society institutions consolidation. We aim also to analyze the current legislation role on mobilizing citizens, developing internal organization structure of NGOs and shaping the public opinion. Under this consideration there will be examined the limitations of legal approaches and its practical dimensions that determine the operational context for civil society. We focus on presenting the three main forms of „enabling environment‖: existence, expression and engagement of civic society institutions. Analysis of the 3Es produces five critical outcome domains – association, resources, opinion, information and negotiation – that are significantly affected by legislation. For each domain, a set of ideal legal conditions is described