Retroactive Legislation

More about the book

Essential to the rule of law is that the rules not be changed in the middle of the game. This principle is embodied in the notion that legislation should apply prospectively. Yet, too often, Congress has adopted unfair retroactive legislation, with the blessing of the courts. In this volume Dan Troy argues that political and procedural mechanisms are needed to protect settled, investment-backed expectations. Troy traces the history of the presumption of prospectivity and surveys the Constitution's ex post facto, bill of attainder, contracts, and takings clauses in documenting the courts' failure to guard against retroactive legislation.