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In depth
Ex post facto (Latin for 'from after the fact' or 'retroactive') describes a law that retroactively changes the legal consequences of actions that were taken before the law was enacted. Ex post facto laws are generally disfavored and prohibited in criminal law in many jurisdictions.
For CBD cases, ex post facto considerations arise with: (1) restitution laws (like German Article 116) that retroactively restore citizenship to those who lost it under previous (often discriminatory) laws, (2) reforms that extend citizenship to descendants who were previously excluded (like the Italian 1948 path), and (3) amendments that change the requirements for citizenship transmission.
Most CBD restitution laws are explicitly retroactive — they 'restore' citizenship as if it had never been lost, rather than 'granting' it prospectively. This retroactive effect is generally upheld because it benefits (rather than punishes) the affected individuals.
Related terms
Article 116 of the German Basic Law (Grundgesetz) restores German citizenship to those deprived of it by the Nazi regime between 1933 and 1945, and to their descendants.
A 1948 case is a judicial petition for Italian citizenship filed in the civil court of Rome, available to descendants of Italian women who gave birth before January 1, 1948.
Naturalization is the legal process by which a non-citizen acquires the citizenship of a country, typically after meeting residency, language, and integration requirements.
Lex loci (Latin for 'law of the place') is the legal principle that the law of the place where an event occurred governs the legal consequences of that event.
Lex domicilii (Latin for 'law of the domicile') is the legal principle that the law of a person's domicile governs certain legal relationships, complementing lex loci in CBD cases.
Sui generis (Latin for 'of its own kind') is a legal term describing something unique, often applied to citizenship regimes that don't fit standard categories.