Kuwait Court of Cassation principle number 227

Summary: - Army personnel. Their affairs are governed by the provisions of laws and decisions relating to the army. They are not subject to the provisions of the decree-law issued concerning the civil service. Rule: It is established—in the jurisprudence of this Court—that an employee's entitlement to any benefit depends upon fulfillment of all conditions necessary for entitlement thereto under the law and the decisions governing it. The general rule is that the provisions of laws and equivalent ministerial decisions apply only to what occurs from their effective date and have no effect upon what occurred before them. Courts may not go back into the past to apply a new ministerial decision to legal relationships that arose before it became effective, or to the effects produced in the past by those relationships before the new ministerial decision came into force. Rather, when examining those legal relationships and their effects, the judge must refer to the ministerial decision in force when they arose and when they produced those effects. Army personnel's affairs, including receipt of their salaries, are governed by the provisions of laws and decisions relating to the army, and they are not subject to the provisions of the decree-law issued concerning the civil service. The court of merits has the authority to assess whether the defect of abuse or misuse of power is established, without review of its assessment, provided that its inference is reasonable and has an established basis in the papers.