LIMITS OF RETROACTIVITY IN ADMINISTRATIVE LAW
AN ANALYSIS OF THE CONSTITUTIONAL FRAMEWORK AND CASE LAW
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.30925/zpfsr.47.2.15Keywords:
true retroactivity, quasi-retroactivity, legitimate expectations, legal certainty, administrative law.Abstract
In accordance with the principles of the rule of law and legal certainty, the retroactive effect of legislation is prohibited. However, as the legal system must adapt to changing social circumstances and the legislators must take account of the protection of the public interest, statutes may exceptionally be given retroactive effect, but only for particularly justified reasons. Since retroactivity undermines legal certainty and may violate the principle of legality, it is important to clearly define the limits of its admissibility. To this end, the paper first analyses the principle prohibiting retroactivity and the protection of legitimate expectations as closely related legal concepts. It then examines the distinction between “true retroactivity”, which is absolutely prohibited, and “quasi-retroactivity”, which is permissible under certain conditions, with particular emphasis on the circumstances under which it may affect final administrative acts. Finally, based on an analysis of constitutional and administrative court case law, the paper concludes that the constitutional limits of quasi-retroactivity have not yet been clearly defined, especially regarding general acts.
Additional Files
Published
Versions
- 2026-09-17 (2)
- 2026-09-15 (1)
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2026 The Author and the Publisher
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
The Collected Papers of the Law Faculty of the University of Rijeka (Zbornik Pravnog fakulteta Sveučilišta u Rijeci) is a diamond (platinum) open access journal, meaning that all published articles are made immediately and permanently available online free of charge to readers, and without any article processing charges (APCs) applied to authors.
Up to and including Volume 44, Issue 1, the journal and the articles published in it were published under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International licence (CC BY-NC 4.0). From Volume 44, Issue 2 onwards, the journal and the articles published in it are published under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International licence (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0). Under the applicable licence, use, sharing, and reproduction of the work are permitted exclusively for non-commercial purposes, provided that appropriate credit is given to the author, the work, and the source. Adaptation, modification, and the distribution of adapted or modified versions of the work are not permitted.
Articles published in the Collected Papers of the Law Faculty of the University of Rijeka may be deposited in institutional and other repositories, provided that a link to the exact article page on the Hrčak portal is included.
The author of an article published in the Collected Papers of the Law Faculty of the University of Rijeka retains his or her copyright. After acceptance of a peer-reviewed manuscript for publication in the journal, the author is permitted to publish the same manuscript or its translation in another journal, provided that a clear and detailed citation of the original publication in the Collected Papers of the Law Faculty of the University of Rijeka is included, along with a link to the exact article page on the Hrčak portal
