When considering what was a ‘vested right’ for the purposes of applying the presumption against retrospectivity of statutes affecting such rights, to convert a mere right existing in the members of the community or any class of them into an accrued or vested right to which the presumption applies, the particular beneficiary of the right must have done something to avail himself of it before the law is changed. Since the purpose of legislation is to alter the existing legal situation, there is no presumption that it will not alter rights which individuals have, but have not exercised.
Court: PCDate: 01-Jan-1895
Judges: Lord Herschell LC
References: [1895] AC 425,
Cited By:
- Wilson and others -v- Secretary of State for Trade and Industry; Wilson -v- First County Trust Ltd (No 2), HL, Cited, (House of Lords, Gazette 18-Sep-03, Times 11-Jul-03, Bailii, [2003] UKHL 40, [2003] 3 WLR 568, [2004] 1 AC 816, [2003] 2 All ER (Comm) 491, [2003] HRLR 33, [2003] UKHRR 1085, [2003] 4 All ER 97)
- Oxfordshire County Council -v- Oxford City Council and others, HL, Cited, (Bailii, [2006] UKHL 25, Times 31-May-06, Gazette 08-Jun-06, [2006] 2 WLR 1235, [2006] 2 AC 674, [2006] 22 EG 177, [2006] NPC 62, [2006] BLGR 713, [2006] 2 EGLR 95, [2006] 4 All ER 817)
- Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change -v- Friends of The Earth and Others, CA, Cited, (Bailii, [2012] EWCA Civ 28)
