The Application of Paul Ricoeur’s Theory in Interpretation of Legal Texts and Legally Relevant Human Action Marcin Pienia˛ _ zek Ó Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2015 Abstract The article presents possible applications of Paul Ricoeur’s theory in interpretation of legal texts and legally relevant human action. One should notice that Paul Ricoeur developed a comprehensive interpretation theory of two seem- ingly distant phenomena: literary texts and human action. When interrelating these issues, it becomes possible, on the basis of Ricoeur’s work, to construct a unified theory of the interpretation of legal texts and of legally relevant human action. What is provided by this theory for jurisprudence is the possibility of formulating a comprehensive theory of application of law, well established in the ontology of the recipient of the legal text. It should be emphasised that the resulting benefits, outlined in the article become particularly noticeable when set against the back- ground of the methodological weaknesses of legal positivism, concerning both the interpretation of law and a syllogistic model of its application. Keywords Paul Ricoeur Á Jurisprudence Á Legal hermeneutics Á Legal interpretation Á Human action Á Application of law Á Legal subjectivity 1 Introduction In the area of the hermeneutic paradigm [32, 33], supplemented with narrative theory, 1 Paul Ricoeur developed a comprehensive interpretation theory of two M. Pienia˛ _ zek (&) Faculty of Law, Administration and International Relations, Andrzej Frycz Modrzewski Krakow University, Krakow, Poland e-mail: pieniazekm@poczta.onet.pl 1 The theory of narratives was presented in jurisprudence inter alia by MacCormick [28, ch. 11, pp. 214–236]. More broadly on the theory of narrative see Altman [1]. 123 Int J Semiot Law DOI 10.1007/s11196-015-9403-3