The general prohibition against retroactive criminal legislation (ex
post facto laws) provides some guidance to answering the question.4
The principle behind this prohibition is that individuals have a right to
know what the "law" is at the time that they supposedly violate it. The
principle is expressed as well in the Latin maxim: nullum crimen, nulla
poena sine lege [There is no crime, no punishment, without prior legislative
warning]. While the 1787 U.S. Constitution contains a prohibition
against ex post facto legislation, the 1949 German Constitution
enacts the broader prohibition against punishing in the absence of prior
legislative warning.5 The basic principle is this:
Individuals have a right to know what the "law" is at the time
that they are said to violate it
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