Chap IX

A. IN Gen.

Prospective and retroactive statutes defined.

Prospective statute - one which operates upon facts or transaction that occur
after the statute takes effect, one that looks and applies to the future.

Retroactive law - a law which creates a new obligation, imposes a new duty or
attaches a new disability in respect to a

Laws operate prospectively, generally.

Prospective by default, unless provided otherwise expressly or impliedly.

Prospectiviity provided in art 4 of NCC

Lex prospicit, non repicit (law looks forward, not backward

Lex de futuro, judex de praeterito (law provides for the future, the judge for the
past

Reason for general rule, as embodied in art 4, is that law is rule established to
guide action with now binding effect until it is enacted; hence, it has no application
to the past but only to future times.

Nova constitutio futuris formam imponere debet non praeteritis - a new law ought to
be construed to interfere as little as possible with vested rights; A new law ought to
regulate what is to follow, not the past; A new statute should affect the future, not the
past.

Principle of prospectively applies to:

1. Statutes
2. Administrative rulings and circulars
3. Judicial Decisions.

Presumption against retroactivity.

Statutes to be construed prospectively or retroactively depends upon legislative intent.

Presumption: all laws operate prospectively, unless the contrary clearly appears or is
clearly, plainly and unequivocally expressed or necessarily implied.

If statute susceptible of construction other than retroactivity, or if retroactive application

would make the statute unconstitutional, it will be given prospective effect.

Has been held: unless the contrary clearly appears, no substantive statute shall be so
construed retroactively as to affect pending litigations.
Words or phrases indicating prospectivity.

Where by its terms a statute is to apply “hereafter,” or “thereafter,” or is to take effect

immediately or at a fixed future date, or where a statute contains, in the enacting clause,
the phrase “from and after the passing of this Act,” or employment of such words as “shall
have been made” or “from and after” a designated date, the statute is prospective in
operation only.

“Shall” in a statute implies that the lawmaker intended the enactment to be effective only
in future.

When statute provides that it “shall take effect upon its approval,” or on the date the
President shall have issued a proclamation or executive order, as provided in the statute, it
shows that the statute should have no retroactive but prospective effect.

Retroactive states, generally.

The Constitution does not prohibit the enactment of retroactive statutes which do not
impair the obligations of contract, deprive persons of property without due process of law,
or divest rights that have become vested, or which are not are not in the nature of ex post
facto laws.

Retroactivity depends on legislative intent.

Some statutes in their nature are intended to be retroactive. Such as:

1. remedial or curative statues
2. as well as statutes that will create new rights.

If expressly provided for retroactivity, the problem is not whether to apply it so or not, but
whether applying it retroactively would violate any of the constitutional restrictions.

B. Statutes given prospective effect

Penal statutes, generally

GR: penal laws or those laws which define offenses and prescribe penalties for their
violation operate prospectively.

Art. 21, RPC provides that “no felony shall be punishable by any penalty not
prescribed by law prior to its commission.”

Nullum crimen sine poena, nulla poena sine legis - there is no crime without a penalty,
and there is no penalty without a law.

Ex post facto law.

The constitution provides that no ex post facto law shall be enacted. — prohibits the
retroactive application of penal laws which are in nature of ex post facto laws.

Ex post facto law is any of the following:

1. A law which makes criminal an act done before the passage of the law and
which was innocent was done, and punishes such act;
2. A law which aggravates a crime, or makes it greater than it was, when
committed;
3. A law which changes the punishment and inflicts a greater punishment than
that annexed to the crime when committed;
4. A law which alters the legal rules of evidence, and authorizes conviction upon
less or different testimony than the law required at the time of commission of the
offense;
5. A law which assumes to regulate civil rights and remedies only, but in effect
imposes penalty or deprivation of a right for something which when done was lawful;
6. A law which deprives a person accused of a crime of some lawful protection
to which he has become entitled, such as protection of a former conviction or
acquittal, or a proclamation of amnesty.

The test to whether the ex post facto clause of the Constitution is violated is: Does the
law sought to be applied retroactively takes from an accused any right that was regarded at
the time as vital for the protection of life and liberty?

The prohibition against ex post facto law is limited in scope and applies only to
criminal or penal matters, and not to laws which concerns civil proceedings generally
or regulate civil or private rights or political privilege.

Bill of attainder.
The Constitution provides that no bill of attainder shall be enacted. — a legislative
act which inflicts punishment without judicial trial.

The bar against bills of attainder serves to implement the principle of separation of
powers by confining the legislature to rule-making and thereby forestalling legislative
usurpation of judicial functions.

Bill of attainder were employed to suppress unpopular causes and political

minorities, and it is against this evil that the constitutional prohibition is directed.
- The singling out of a definite minority
- the imposition of a burden on it
- a legislative intent
- and the retroactive application to past conduct
, suffice to stigmatize a statute as a bill of attainder.

The requirement that the law must apply retroactively and reach past conduct follows
from the nature of a bill of attainder as a legislative adjudication of guilt. Thus a bill of
attainder is doubly objectionable because of its ex post facto features.

This is the historic explanation of uniting the two mischiefs in one clause - “no ex
post facto law or bill of attainder shall be enacted.”

If a statute is a bill of attainder, it is also an ex post facto law. But if it is not an ex

post facto law, the reasons that establish that it is not, are persuasive that it is not a
bill of attainder.

When penal laws applied retroactively.

GR: Penal laws cannot be given retroactive effect
XPN: when they are favorable to the accused.

Art. 22, RPC - “[p]enal laws shall have a retroactive effect insofar as they favor the
person guilty of a felony, who is not a habitual criminal…”

Conscience and good law justify this exception, contained in the well-known
aphorism:
Favorabilia sunt amplianda, adiosa restingenda - Penal laws which are favorable
to the accused are given retroactive effect

As a distinguished author put it, the exception was inspired by sentiments of

humanity, and accepted by science.

The rule does not apply to:

1. accused that are habitual delinquents;
2. Where the later statutes expressly provides that it shall not apply to existing
actions or pending cases;
3. Where accused disregards the later law and invokes the prior statute under which
he was prosecuted.

The general rule that an amendatory statute rendering an illegal act prior to its
enactment no longer illegal is given retroactive effect does not apply if the
amendatory statute expressly provides that it shall not apply retroactively but only
prospectively.

Statutes substantive in nature.

Substantive law:
- law which creates, defines or regulates rights concerning life, liberty or property, or
the powers of agencies or instrumentalities for the administration of public affairs.

Substantive law creates substantive right — one which includes those rights which
one enjoys under the legal system prior to the disturbance of normal relations.

Substantive Law vs. Remedial Law

Substantive Law is that part of the law which creates, defines, and regulates rights, or
which regulates rights and duties which give rise to a cause of action, as opposed to
adjective or remedial law, which prescribes the method of enforcing rights or obtains
redress for their invasion.

As applied to criminal law

Substantive law is that which declares what acts are crimes and prescribes the
punishment for committing them.

Substantive law, by its very nature and essence, operates prospectively — may not
be construed retroactively without somehow affecting previous or past rights or
obligations; hence, it should be given a strict and prospective construction, in the
absence of clear, plain and unambiguous intent to the contrary.

Sustantive Law vs. Procedural Law

Substantive Law
- If it takes away vested right
- If the rule creates right such as right to appeal (vests rights/jurisdiction)

Procedural Law
- Operates as a means of implementing an existing right
- e.g. Where to prosecute an appeal or transferring the venue of appeal is
procedural.

GR: Procedural rules are retroactive and are applicable to actions pending to actions
pending and undermined at the time of the passage of the procedural law.

GR: Substantive law are prospective.

Effects on pending actions.

A statute which affects substantive rights and not merely procedural matters may not
be given retroactive operation so as to govern pending proceedings, in the absence
of a clear legislative intent to the contrary.
- unless the statute itself so provides or unless express prohibitory words are
used.

A statute enacted during pendency of the appeal vesting jurisdiction upon a trial
court over a subject matter previously out of its jurisdiction may not be given
retroactive effect so as to validate the judgement of the court a quo, in the absence a
saving clause.

GR: Substantive laws that affect pending actions or proceedings can’t be applied
retroactively.
XPN: Unless the contrary clearly and plainly appears and only when no vested rights
are impaired.

It has been held that a “law vesting additional jurisdiction in the court cannot be given
retroactive effect.”

Qualification of rule.
Substantive law will be construed as applicable to pending actions if such is the clear
intent of the law, OR if the statute, by the very nature of its purpose as a measure to
promote social justice OR in the exercise of police power, is intended to apply to
pending actions.
- This rule is, however, subject to the limitations concerning constitutional restrictions
against impairment of vested rights.

Statutes affecting vested rights.

A vested right or interest may be said to mean some right or interest in property that
has become fixed or established and is no longer open to doubt or controversy.

Rights are vested when the right to enjoyment, present or prospective, has become
the property of some particular person or persons, as a present interest.

The right must be:

 1. Absolute
2. Complete and unconditional
3. Independent of a contingency

A mere expectancy of future benefit or a contingent interest in property founded on

anticipated continuance of existing laws do not constitute a vested right.

Inchoate rights which have not been acted on are not vested.

A statute may not be construed and applied retroactively if it impaired sustantive right
that has become vested, as disturbing or destroying existing right embodied in a
judgement, or creating new obligations