Reputation of a Local Government Unit – Legal Aspects

Abstract

The issue of reputation of a local government unit is located on the border of two important branches of law – civil and administrative. Reputation is a category of civil law – it is a personal right vested in legal persons, while the issue related to local government units concerns institutions in the field of administrative law. Reputation of a local government unit may be violated in two cases. Th first of them consists in spreading false information about the entity, which also undermines its reputation. In the second case, there is a violation of good name when publishing evaluative statements in which the respective subject is criticized, lacking in the constructive feature. In order for the reputation of a municipality, poviat or voivodeship to be violated, it can be addressed to both their organs, self-government organizational units and their employees, as well as the general public of their residents as well as a local government unit as an unspecified whole. Local government units have the same legal remedies as all other civil law entities provided for in the Civil Code, i.e. claims under Art. 24 and 448.