The Evolution of the Legal Basis of the Organization and Functioning of Local Government in Poland

In the article some amendments of statutes on local self-government made in the last twenty six years will be presented. There is no doubt about the fact that the way of interpretation of several legal provisions was far from the original interpretation concept based on the original purpose of these provisions. Although some activities of local self-government authorities could not in fact be considered illegal, negative social perception of these activities was intelligible to all – they were regarded as legal, but at the same time as unethical or contradictory to the rules of social community life. Local authorities representatives were sometimes unaware of such contradiction and let in this way the private interest dominate over the public interest. Such practice infringed also one of the basic principles of self-government according to which local authorities are obliged to realize and protect the common social interest of the local community. Moreover, this is also influencing the law modification and amendment process of the local self-government statutes; however this process is mainly politically driven. On one hand, this process shall actually have a perpetual character and it shall be adjusted to the evolving and changing social relationships; on the other hand, in the area of the administrative law often even unnecessary law is enacted as the local legislator knows this law might easily be changed or announced ineffective if needed. Frequent processing of law amendments decreases its substantive importance, contradicts its stability and consistency. For these reasons the impact of the modern legislative process is a cause of ever-growing concern