The Application of Law and the Noara and Jaffa Cakes cases (A Conversation with Luís Duarte d’Almeida)

Abstract

In this work some of Luís Duarte d’Almeida’s theses on the application of law are commented. Two are the disputed theses: 1) That the deductivist conception does not adequately reconstruct judicial reasoning and 2) that in judicial reasoning it is enough to establish that a certain norm N is applicable to a case c. An attempt is made to show that there is a way to rescue the deductivist conception of judges’ reasoning and that this conception contributes to revealing what it means that a norm N is applicable to a case c.