Ex post facto law: Difference between revisions

{{Short description|Law with retroactive effect}}

{{DISPLAYTITLE:''Ex post facto'' law}}

{{More citations needed|date=January 2021}}

An '''''ex post facto'' law'''<ref>(from {{Lang-la|ex post facto|lit=After the fact}})</ref> is a [[law]] that retroactively changes the legal consequences (or status) of actions that were committed, or relationships that existed, before the enactment of the law. In [[criminal law]], it may [[Criminalization|criminalize]] actions that were legal when committed; it may aggravate a [[crime]] by bringing it into a more severe category than it was in when it was committed; it may change the [[punishment]] prescribed for a crime, as by adding new penalties or extending sentences; it may extend the [[statute of limitations]]; or it may alter the [[rules of evidence]] in order to make conviction for a crime likelier than it would have been when the deed was committed.