Nunc pro tunc
Nunc pro tunc is a Latin expression in common use in the English language. It means Now for then and while its application is common to certain legal documents, its application resonates within the writings of Nineteen Eighty Four by George Orwell.
Definition
Nunc pro tunc or now for then is a phrase which theoretically applies to acts that are allowed to be done after the time when they should have been done with a retroactive effect. However, the practice is often use to cover up misdeeds or to make the past disappear in Orwellian fashion so that a new record of the past can be inserted in place of the original record. In other words it is supposed to be an inserted entry made now of something actually previously done to have effect of a former date. The idea is that the corrected record will not create a new record, but create a true record that should have been made originally but due to inadvertence or mistake, it was not done at the time.
Corporate application
A corporation may have been created by an individual, but since a corporation has the standing in law of a person (although not a natural person), it is possible for its human creator to go bankrupt and for the assets of the corporation to be seized to satisfy unpaid taxes. Then, if others bought the assets from the tax authority and the corporation shell passed into other hands, it is possible for the person who bought the assets to also buy the corporation shell and upon payment of corporate franchise taxes, for that individual to claim that the corporation is the original corporation with the original assets. When someone inspects the new corporate record they could find that the history of the corporation has been rewritten so that its current owner appears to be the original owner. This has happened in the case of PAMS jingles within the State of Texas Corporations Division. However, the person currently listed as being the founder of the company would have been a mere child in reality and Bill Meeks who in reality is created with creating the company, is no longer a part of the original wrtitten record of the company that is on file with the State.
Adoption application
An individual marries and the parents have a child. The parents divorce and one parent is given sole custody of the child. The parental custodian of the child then marries and the new partner seeks adoption of the child which is granted. The original birth certificate which reflects the name and address of the actual parent who is no longer a part of the legal chain of custody of child, is then removed from the records by the State and a new birth certificate is inserted in its place. This new document now shows that the child has a different surname and a different name for the birth parent but the address is the same as the original parent. The original document is sealed and only the new document is available for examination and thus the original parent disappears from view.
Religious application
A religion that commenced with an individual on a certain date and in a certain place emerges into a religion that requires a prehistory to show that the origin of the religion predates the actual starting date. Religious history is then rewritten to accomodate and incorporate persons and events that took place long before the actual dawn of the religion itself. But since the history books now only reflect the changed history, only the changed history is available for examination.
Orwellian application
George Orwell who wrote the novel Nineteen Eighty Four described a politial machine which so dominated a nation that its civil servants regularly removed old texts and replaced them with new texts of the old events. Sometimes these clerks would also remove the new texts and replace them with the old once again with never a question to be asked as to why this was being done. Its purpose in the novel was political and the Party of Big Brother was able to dictate what was true and what was untrue; that which happened and that which never happened, not according to reality but according to the whim of the Party.
References
- Black's Law Dictionary = Nunc pro tunc
- Barron's Law Dictionary = Nunc pro tunc
External links
PAMS = recent history of the company. State of Texas = corporation charter.