Mendes v. Johnson, 389 A.2d 781 (1978)

Citation: Mendes v. Johnson, 389 A.2d 781 (1978)
Parent Document: Mendes v. Johnson, 389 A.2d 781 (1978)
Jurisdiction: DC (municipal)
Effective Date: 1978-06-13
Original Source: https://www.courtlistener.com/opinion/2073911/mendes-v-johnson/ ↗

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Antithetical to the Blackstonian retroac-tivity doctrine was the prospectivity theory expounded by Austin. This theory conceived of judges not as mere discoverers but as active creators of the law who, through the mechanism of judicial interpretation, imparted meaning to statutory and common law. The overruling of precedent was viewed as integral to the dynamic process of redefinition and reformation that advanced the evolution of the law. The Austrian school advocated recognition of overruled precedents as simply erroneous deci*788sions derived from controlling principles since determined to be fallacious. It rejected the employment of the legal fiction of Blackstone’s “relation back” doctrine, maintaining that prior rules of law, although discredited, continued to control in all intermediate cases decided until the point of their overruling. Because such rules were not “extinguished” by the mere declaration of new governing principles, but rather retained their status as controlling, the establishment of new legal principles did not mandate the disturbance of settled results reached thereunder.18

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