Personality Rights – A Universal Tool for the Recovery of Non-Pecuniary Loss

As society develops, the concept of personality rights and their legal protection gain significance over the years. Naturally, this concept is evolving as society changes, and it should protect new personal interests against infringement. At the same time, there are reported instances of granting legal protection with doubtful legal justification. In Poland, many commentators and scholars point out that the courts, in some cases, seem to use the concept of personality rights as a universal tool in order to compensate for nearly any mental distress. In this paper, I wish to present interesting examples of this "search" for new personality rights as tools to compensate the plaintiffs for non-pecuniary damages, along with some controversial cases of granting non-pecuniary damages based on questionable legal justification. Following, I will attempt to clarify the notion of non-pecuniary loss and examine whether the courts try to expand its meaning to grant legal protection to plaintiffs. My analysis will be based on Polish law, with some comparative remarks. As the problem is complex and varies according to the jurisdiction, this paper provides a general illustration of the issue at hand. Keywords: Tort law; Personality rights; Non-pecuniary damage; Non-pecuniary loss; Compensation