# Retrospective Law and Release from Prison

## TL;DR

The paper discusses how retrospective laws in criminal justice can cause injustice by making laws inaccessible and challenging equality.

## Contribution

The paper introduces a novel analysis linking retrospective criminal legislation to the issue of delaying prisoners' release.

## Key findings

- Retrospective criminal legislation undermines law accessibility and equality.
- Retrospective reform of release provisions threatens similar values as criminalization.
- Current legal safeguards against such reforms are weak and need reconsideration.

## Abstract

This article draws out two injustices to which retrospective criminal legislation may give rise: undermining accessibility of law and challenging equality before the law. It is argued that the censuring function of criminal law exacerbates both wrongs. This sets the stage for an analysis of delaying prisoners’ release. It is suggested that retrospective reform in this context threatens the same values as those threatened by retrospective criminalisation. Yet, the safeguards against retrospective reform of release provisions are weak due to two important strands of case law, one concerning which penalty was ‘applicable at the time’ of the offence and another which draws a distinction between penalties and their execution. Both strands of case law are in need of fundamental reconsideration if article 7 of the European Convention on Human Rights is to realise its purposes of upholding rule-of-law values and providing practicable safeguards.