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ex post facto
[ eks pohst fak-toh ]
adjective
- having retroactive force; made or done subsequently:
an ex post facto law.
ex post facto
/ ɛks pəʊst ˈfæktəʊ /
adjective
- having retrospective effect
an ex post facto law
ex post facto
1- A descriptive term for an explanation or a law that is made up after an event and then applied to it: “The chairman's description of his plan sounds like an ex post facto attempt to justify an impulsive action.” Ex post facto is Latin for “from after the deed.”
ex post facto
2- An explanation or regulation concocted after the event, sometimes misleading or unjust: “Your ex post facto defense won't stand up in court.” ( See ex post facto law .) From Latin , meaning “after the deed.”
Word History and Origins
Origin of ex post facto1
Word History and Origins
Origin of ex post facto1
Example Sentences
“This is a violation of the ex post facto clause of the constitution,” said Neama Rahmani, president of West Coast Trial Lawyers.
As for the claim of ex post facto justice, Robert Jackson — the American prosecutor who believed aggression enabled all the other war crimes that followed — summed up the charge:
The ban on ex post facto laws, the court said, prohibits increasing the punishment for a crime after the crime was committed, and that it does not apply in the inmates’ cases.
Because genocide became an official crime only after the Nuremberg trials, Germany decided in 1949 that charging former Nazis with this crime would amount to ex post facto law.
So many shows rely on studio interviews or guests recapping their adventures ex post facto — the equivalent of Aunt Jane prattling on about her trip to Tuscany over the phone.
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