The Relationship of Application as a Triadic Relationship

Abstract

The term “application” in the title of this paper refers to the application of legal sentences. In previous works on this subject, I have described the application of legal sentences as if it were a dyadic relationship between a legal sentence and a judicial decision resolving a dispute. I have adopted this approach for reasons of simplification, but it has two drawbacks: first, it obscures the importance of identifying the specific or contentious case involved when determining whether a particular judicial decision does or does not apply a given legal sentence; second, it prevents us from recognising the relationships and independence among several issues encompassed by the topic of the application of legal sentences. In this paper, I aim to address these shortcomings by treating the relationship of application as a triadic relationship among a judicial decision resolving a dispute, a legal sentence, and a concrete case.