Relation (redirected from Object relations)

Kin; relative. The connection of two individuals, or their situation with respect to each other, who are associated, either by law, agreement, or kinship in a social status or union for purposes of domestic life, such as Parent and Child or Husband and Wife.

The doctrine of relation is the principle by which an act performed at one time is deemed, through a legal fiction, to have been performed at a prior time. For example, in the conveyance of real property, the final proceeding that completes the transfer of property is considered, for certain purposes, to have become effective by relation as of the day when the first proceeding took place. Relation, in essence, is the legal term for retroactive effect.

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RELATION, civil law. The report which the judges made of the proceedings in certain suits to the prince were so called.
     2. These relations took place when the judge had no law to direct him, or when the laws were susceptible of difficulties; it was then referred to the prince, who was the author of the law, to give the interpretation. Those reports were made in writing and contained the pleadings of the parties, and all the proceedings, together with the judge's opinion, and prayed the emperor to order what should be done. The ordinance of the prince thus required was called a rescript. (q.v.) the use of these relations was abolished by Justinian, Nov. 125.

RELATION, contracts, construction. When an act is done at one time, and it operates upon the thing as if done at another time, it is said to do so by relation; as, if a man deliver a deed as an escrow, to be delivered by the party holding it, to the grantor, on the performance of some act, the delivery to the latter will have relation back to the first delivery. Termes de la Ley. Again, if a partner be adjudged a bankrupt, the partnership is dissolved, and such dissolution relates back to the time when the commission issued. 3 Kent, Com. 33. Vide 18 Vin. Ab. 285; 4 Com. Dig. 245; 5 Id. 339; Litt. S. C. 462-466; 2 John. 510; 4 John. 230; 15 John. 809; 2 Har. & John. 151, and the article Fiction.