#Constitutional Law

The prohibition of ex post facto laws is a solemn yet burdensome principle ensuring that statutes come without time machines. It locks away attempts to judge past acts by new rules, serving as a convenient excuse to avoid needless chaos in the future. While it shackles legislators from self-serving retroactive schemes, it often reveals its own contradictions. Without this doctrine, politics and the judiciary would remain trapped in an eternal game of post hoc one-upmanship.