His lawyer, John Christian Elden, has complained that the policy change is a form of retroactive legislation.

It was dismissed on June 3, 2009, citing retroactive legislation in the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.

They endorsed retroactive legislation but were, however, opposed to the death penalty.

On the other hand, the court's precedents for invalidating retroactive legislation are rather strict, establishing various tests for determining constitutionality that at least on their face do not quite fit the California law.

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what is the policy of the Inland Revenue in respect of charging penalty tax for a period before retroactive primary legislation is passed.

And there are few precedents for the sort of retroactive legislation the banks want.

The current constitutional protection of property rights has been sorely lacking on such important matters as land use control, rent control and retroactive economic legislation.

I also want to comment on the question as to whether there is to be any retroactive legislation.

Gabba left behind the concept of legal principle acquired right, in his most famous book Teoria della retroattività delle leggi (Theory of retroactive legislation, Turin, 1891).

At least the government can answer those who say its attitude to retroactive legislation is inconsistent.