That makes no difference at all to those flat-Earthers imprisoned (alongisde homosexuals, scientists and others) under the You’re an Insult to God Act (1553), under which you will still get strapped to a cannon, disemboweled and thrown in the sea. Separately and differently, this week we might retroactively decide to free from prison any militant flat-Earther incarcerated under the rather punitive We Hate Non-Scientists Act (1999). That would be informative and interesting. We might retrospectively consider how the millions believing that the world is flat have affected the course of civilisation. Such ‘events’ will typically be abstract: it is hard to reverse a physical avalanche and start again, but we can reinterpret existing information in light of new discoveries, and move on from that theoretical point as if starting from way back. If a certain decision is retro active, it will systematically affect past events. One way to think about this is to consider that retro spective involves looking backwards at past events, as if they are fixed but in a complex context, with considerable consciousness of a gap of time. They just sometimes crop up in similar contexts. You have asked for a summary of the distinction, and you have noted that some statements are constructed such that one of these terms might include the other, but they really do not do that. It seems to me that in Briatain, at least, 'retrospective' has to some extent taken on the meaning of 'retroactive'. And some of the more recent examples are clearly ones where you would claim 'retroactive' were appropriate. Clearly it encompasses the 'retroactive'. 82 The retrospective nature of the intended legislation makes it doubly wrong.Ībove is meaning number one (or retrospective) from the OED. 44 360 The arguments on the legality of retrospective legislation have been impressive in variety, but unconvincing in substance.ġ955 Times 28 June 6/5 The decision was retrospective to April 1, when the new rates came into operation.Ģ004 H. 321 The amnesia, however, is not, so to speak, retrospective.ġ934 Yale Law Jrnl. 36/1 It is a retrospective alteration of a contract by one of the parties to the detriment of the other.ġ899 T. 465 Sentencing a man to death by retrospective law.ġ873 Sat. §15 It hinders the confirmation from having that retrospective quality.ġ788 Considerations submitted to House of Lords on Two East-India Bills 54 All Acts of the Legislature, are retrospective, as well as prospective.ġ843 Macaulay Crit. 110 The new mode of making retrospective Acts of Parliament.Ī1768 J. Taking effect from a date in the past retroactive.ġ660 F. (1908) also gives the pronunciation (rītrospe Compare earlier retrospectively adv., which may imply earlier currency of the adjective. 2) French rétrospective (1920 in this sense 1919 in sense ‘screening of a series of old films’), Spanish retrospectiva (1872 in this sense). With the use as noun compare earlier retrospect n., retrospection n., and (with the specific use in sense B. With the use as adjective compare French rétrospectif (1779), Spanish retrospectivo (1587). ˌrɛtrəˈspɛktɪv/Įtymology: < post-classical Latin retrospect-, past participial stem of retrospicere to look back (see retrospect v.) + -ive suffix. View as: Outline |Full entryQuotations: Show all |Hide all Can anyone summarise the difference by way of simple examples as to their separate uses? This would seem to me as though it should be 'retroactive'.Īnd interestingly both words carry meanings which include the other. Under 'retrospective' for example there is an instance of legislation having been passed which took effect from an earlier time. Having just briefly looked at both in the OED there seems to me plenty of room for interchangeability in the way they are used.
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