Cite as: 520 U. S. 939 (1997)
Opinion of the Court
The fact that courts often apply newly enacted jurisdiction-allocating statutes to pending cases merely evidences certain limited circumstances failing to meet the conditions for our generally applicable presumption against retroactivity, not an exception to the rule itself, as the United States recognizes. See Brief for United States as Amicus Curiae 15, and n. 8. As we stated in Landgraf:
"Application of a new jurisdictional rule usually 'takes away no substantive right but simply changes the tribunal that is to hear the case.' Present law normally governs in such situations because jurisdictional statutes 'speak to the power of the court rather than to the rights or obligations of the parties.' " 511 U. S., at 274 (emphasis added; citations omitted).
Statutes merely addressing which court shall have jurisdiction to entertain a particular cause of action can fairly be said merely to regulate the secondary conduct of litigation and not the underlying primary conduct of the parties. Cf. id., at 275; id., at 291 (Scalia, J., concurring). Such statutes affect only where a suit may be brought, not whether it may be brought at all. The 1986 amendment, however, does not merely allocate jurisdiction among forums. Rather, it creates jurisdiction where none previously existed; it thus speaks not just to the power of a particular court but to the substantive rights of the parties as well. Such a statute, even though phrased in "jurisdictional" terms, is as much subject to our presumption against retroactivity as any other.
III
In sum, whether we consider the relevant conduct to be Hughes' disclosure to the Government or its submission of the allegedly false claim, disclosure of information about the claim to the Government constituted a full defense to a qui tam action prior to 1986. If applied in this case, the legal effect of the 1986 amendment would be to deprive Hughes of
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