9 Judgment No. CCZ 2/18 Constitutional Application No. CCZ 86/15 A retrospective law is therefore every statute which has the effect of taking away or impairing vested rights acquired under existing law or creating a new obligation, imposing a new duty, or attaching a new disability in respect to transactions or considerations already past. Retrospectivity is not about an application of a remedy. It is about when a substantive right came into being. Whatever meaning is attached to the term “retrospectivity”, it is the Constitution of a country which provides for limits on legislative power to enact retrospective laws. See Kameshwar Nath Chaturvedi “Legislative Retrospectivity and Rule of Law” Statute Law Review 34(3)(2013) at 207. In considering the question of the constitutionality of the transitional provision, it is important to state that, with the exception of the area of criminal law, there is no provision in the Constitution that prohibits the enactment of retrospective civil legislation. Whilst the Constitution offers meaningful constitutional restraint against retrospectivity with regard to criminal legislation in terms of practical limitation upon the exercise of legislative power, this safeguard does not extend to civil legislation. In other words, there is no constitutional requirement of civil legislation prospectivity. Section 70(1)(k) of the Constitution expressly prohibits the enactment of retrospective (ex post facto) criminal law by making an act or omission which was not an offence when it was committed an offence. It provides that any person accused of an offence has a right “not to be convicted of an act or omission that was not an offence when it took place”.