Zasada nieretrokacji w kodeksie cywilnym (art. 3 k.c.)
The principle of non-retroactivity in the Civil Code (art. 3 Comercial Code)

Summary/Abstract: The exclusion of inferior acts from the operation of the regulation of Article 3 of the Civil Code would not necessarily imply full admissibility of their retroactivity in action, but, on the contrary, a narrowing of the catalogue of exceptions to the prohibition of retroactivity permitted by law, due to either the limits of the delegation contained in the law or the position of the Constitutional Court, which is more restrictive than the content of Article 3 of the Civil Code.The wording of Article 3 of the Civil Code allowing for an exception based on the that of the provision can hardly be regarded as a prohibition on retroactive legislation, as it makes the granting of this retroactive effect contingent on its very wording. Since, therefore, the provision of Article 3 of the Civil Code is not a prohibition on retroactive legislation addressed to the legislator, it remains to be understood as a directive addressed to the bodies applying the law. There is, in fact, a clear difference between the prohibition addressed to the legislator of enacting provisions prescribing the retroactivity of legal effects and the injunction concerning the bodies applying the law not to apply those legal acts which do not themselves prescribe this to past states of affairs.The application of the purpose exception in Article 3 of the Civil Code indicates both the discretion left in the hands of the entity concerned to determine what the purpose of a statute 'is' and the complete arbitrariness in assessing whether or not retroactivity 'follows' from the purpose so 'determined'.Retroactivity with a purpose cannot come into play when the new act contains a provision expressis verbis requiring the application of previous provisions to legal facts occurring before the new regulation entered into force. A similar situation of exclusion of possible retroactivity by reason of purpose can also be referred to when the provisions introducing a new legal act contain a detailed and exhaustive regulation of the time of entry into force of individual provisions of that act.The relative primacy of "wording" over "purpose" only applies to situations where this "wording" implies a clear and detailed regulation of the intertemporal issues of the entry into force of individual provisions of the Act, in particular the restriction that the previous provisions continue to apply to past situations.In light of the value of legal certainty, there is no justification for the existence of a general provision allowing retroactive application of the law not only when the law itself so provides, but also because of its 'purpose'. At the very least, the postulate to protect the value of legal certainty would indicate the need to return to such a formulation of the principle of non-retroactivity in the Civil Code, which would only allow retroactivity on the basis of express statutory provisions.

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