Retroactivity
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*Retroactivity* in law <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Law> is the application
of a given norm to events that took place or began to produce legal effects,
before the law was approved. Most countries are guided by the general
principle of *irretroactivity of law*, which simply forbids this kind of
ex-temporary application.

Until the middle of the 20th century, common-law systems in the United
States operated on the premise that the law was
natural<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_law>and the courts only
found the law. This presumption led to all decisions
being retroactively applied to all prior cases that involved the issue in
question. However, with the development of legal
realism<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legal_positivism>and the
proliferation of legislatively enacted law, the courts shifted to a
role of interpreting law that had been "made" rather than a role of
"finding" natural law. Complete retroactivity was abolished by the Supreme
Court in *Griffith v. Kentucky*, 479 U.S. 314 (1987).

Currently in the United States there are four forms of retroactivity (or
preclusion of retroactive application) when a new rule is developed on
appeal:[1] <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Retroactivity#cite_note-0>

   - Rule applies only to prospective cases
   - Rule applies to the case at hand as well as prospective cases
   - "Pipeline retroactivity" - rule applies to case at hand as well as all
   cases currently being tried or appealed
   - Rule has complete retroactive effect, including on cases in which final
   judgment has already been entered

In many countries, including Mexico <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mexico>,
there is an exception to the rule of irretroactivity in
criminal<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criminal_law>or penal
law <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penal_law>. Mexico recognizes the
irretroactivity of law as a general principle; however, when it comes to
penal law, the law itself states – and has done so since
1857<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1857>– that the laws can only be
applied retroactively, if the law that was in
vigor when the crime took place is *more favorable* to the processed person,
or said person chooses to have that law applied to him.
[edit<http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Retroactivity&action=edit&section=1>
] References

On Tue, Nov 30, 2010 at 12:10 PM, Jones, Virginia <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> < Also, by the way, should one install safety belt on the car that was made
> without it?>
>
> In my opinion - yes.  The law in Virginia, for example, says who MUST wear
> a safety belt in a moving vehicle.  The State Police are not going to look
> at the age of the car when issuing a ticket for not wearing one.  This is
> similar to a court of law sanctioning an organization for destroying 1995
> vouchers required for a legal case because they applied the current
>  retention schedule, but not destroying 1987 vouchers because they were
> covered by a previous retention schedule.  The court would probably find the
> organization's declared records program to be invalid because it is not
> applied consistently.  And that brings the discussion back to the original
> question - should we apply revised "new" retention periods to old records
> that had a different retention under a previous schedule?
>
> Ginny Jones
> (Virginia A. Jones, CRM, FAI)
> Records Manager
> Information Technology Division
> Newport News Dept. of Public Utilities
> Newport News, VA
> [log in to unmask]
>
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>

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