Encyklopedia Administracji Publicznej MW Pivot Skin

LEGAL PERSONALITY OF LOCAL GOVERNMENT – a constitutional principle: units of local government acquire legal personality at the moment they are created. Local-government units have the legal capacity and capacity to perform legal acts. Issues related to the implementation of this principle are assessed by compliance with the regulations of the Civil Code. The granting of legal personality to local-government units results from their possession of → municipal property, their financial autonomy, and the need to appear in legal proceedings on their own behalf and at their own responsibility. The → auxiliary units of the municipality (districts, housing estates, or rural districts) do not have legal personality, their activity, within the scope of tasks and competences defined by the municipality’s statute, is carried out within the legal personality of the municipality. The issue of having legal personality by local-government units is connected with their self-reliance and independence. Self-reliance of local-government units is subject to judicial protection (the right to file a complaint with the administrative court). As regards bodies of local-government units, presumption of power of making statements of will is assumed by the executive bodies. Detailed rules of submitting declarations of will on behalf of individual local-government units are governed by local-government law (in relation to the municipality, the county, and self-government voivodship) and the statutes of the units concerned (→ local government) [ J. Wojnicki ].

Literature: M. Kulesza, Budowanie samorządu, Warszawa 2008 ■ Z. Leoński, Nauka administracji, Warszawa 2010 ■ E. Ochendowski, Prawo administracyjne (część ogólna), Toruń 2013.