Legal Definitions - retrospective

Definition: Retrospective means looking back at things that have already happened. It is often used in legal contexts to describe a law or ruling that applies to things that happened in the past.

For example, if a new law is passed that makes something illegal, but people have already done that thing before the law was passed, the law might be applied retrospectively. This means that people could be punished for doing something that was legal at the time they did it, but is now illegal because of the new law.

Another example of retrospective action is when a court ruling is made that affects a case that has already been decided. This means that the ruling is applied to the past decision, and could change the outcome of the case.

Overall, retrospective means looking back at things that have already happened, and applying new rules or laws to them.