retrospective statute
Definitions from Case Law · United States Supreme Court
Definitions from Case Law
From 227 U.S. 296 - Winfree v. Northern Pacific Railway Co. · 1913Most cited · 162 citing opinions
It is hardly necessary to say that such statutes are exceptions to the almost universal rule that statutes are addressed to the future, not to the past. They usually constitute a new factor in the affairs and relations of men, and should not be held to affect what has happened unless, indeed, explicit words be used, or by clear implication that construction be required.
How often courts cite the case defining “retrospective statute”
Court decisions citing the opinion that defined “retrospective statute” — 162 in all, by decade. Counts are citations to the defining case as a whole, not verified uses of the term. The dip in the most recent years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the latest years.