Daft Laws.

How about a list of daft laws?

Riadach wrote:

I remember my lecturer telling me there was a specifical prohibition in the Irish canons on using one's church as a brothel.

There was an Irish law on dog shite I mentioned before; if you were the unlucky recipient of a neighbour dog's business, you could demand as compensation the weight of the offending shite in cheese.

A woman's testimony wasn't accepted under Irish law because of a precedent set in the Bible. When Mary Magdalene et al. discovered that Christ had risen from the dead they weren't believed by the Apostles. Of course, the women were telling the truth but that's neither here nor there.

Another law that springs to mind is the English law that says you can't place a stamp upside down on an envelope. Because of the queen's head it counts as treason.

Does anyone have any more?

Louisiana tried (or perhaps even did) pass legislation banning low hanging trousers in recent years. By low hanging trousers I mean this:

In brehon law, if a neighbour owned a beehive, and the bees were 'grazing' your flowers, you could demand compensation for trespass.

Mince pies, may poles and even Christmas itself has been banned at various stages in the history of England, for example
the banning of maypoles as ‘a Heathen vanity, generally abused to superstition and wickedness,’17 and the outlawing of Christmas, Easter and Whitsuntide in 1647.

Link - Suppression of Christmas

johnfás wrote:

Louisiana tried (or perhaps even did) pass legislation banning low hanging trousers in recent years. By low hanging trousers I mean this:

They should be forced to do the foxtrot with each other like that in the middle of town. A public shaming will stamp out this nonsense.

How about these apples?

Arkansas

The Arkansas legislature passed a law that states that the Arkansas River can rise no higher than to the Main Street bridge in Little Rock.

Canada

In Calgary there is a by-law that is still on the books that requires businesses within the city to provide rails for tying up horses.

California

In 1930, the City Council of Ontario passed an ordinance forbidding roosters to crow within the city limits.
In Los Angeles, you cannot bathe two babies in the same tub at the same time.
It is illegal to drive more than two thousand sheep down Hollywood Boulevard at one time.
In California, animals are banned from mating publicly within 1,500 feet of a tavern, school, or place of worship.
In Los Angeles, a man is legally entitled to beat his wife with a leather belt or strap, but the belt can't be wider than 2 inches, unless he has his wife's consent to beat her with a wider strap.

Colorado

In Denver it is unlawful to lend your vacuum cleaner to your next-door neighbor.
Connecticut
In Devon, Connecticut, it is unlawful to walk backwards after sunset.
In Hartford, Conn., you aren't allowed to cross a street while walking on your hands.

England

In the England it is illegal to sell most goods on a sunday, (this law is mostly ignored), it is however legal to sell a carrot. It is also legal to sell it at any price and to give free gifts with it, such as anything else one might want to buy on a sunday!

Thanks to Paul Birkin over at SOCYBERTY for the following ten laws in the UK as of yet unrepealed.

1. Under the Town Police Clauses Act (1847) it is illegal to slide on ice or fly kites in a public place.
   
2. Any resident of Chester is allowed to shoot a Welshman with an arrow if he is within the city walls on a Sunday.
   
3. Taxi drivers are required to ask all passengers if they have smallpox or the plague.
   
4. It is illegal to eat mince-pies in England on Christmas Day.
   
5. A boy under ten years of age is not allowed to see a naked mannequin.
   
6. A bed may not be hung out of a window.
   
7. It is illegal to be drunk on licensed premises.
   
8. In Liverpool it is illegal for a woman to be topless in public, unless they are a clerk in a tropical fish store.
   
9. In Scotland it is illegal to be drunk and in possession of a cow.
   
10. It is illegal for a lady to eat chocolates on a public conveyance.
    

England is good at daft laws.

It is illegal to die in the House of Commons.

A pregnant woman may relieve herself anywhere she wishes.

In France it is illegal to call a pig Napoleon

In Indonesia the penalty for masturbation is decapitation.

In a place of previous employment it was verboten to wear earphones while you work.
The reason? As it was explained to me by the owner "somebody around you might be talking and you wouldn't be able to hear them and might think they were talking about you and you'd be angry about that which could be dangerous".

I'd have thought it's just rude to wear earphones where you work. In an office environment anyway - unless you were working in administration and doing typing of course.

cookiemonster wrote:

In a place of previous employment it was verboten to wear earphones while you work.
The reason? As it was explained to me by the owner "somebody around you might be talking and you wouldn't be able to hear them and might think they were talking about you and you'd be angry about that which could be dangerous".

And were they?

johnfás wrote:

I'd have thought it's just rude to wear earphones where you work. In an office environment anyway - unless you were working in administration and doing typing of course.

I worked on my own for almost all of the day, I saw people three times a day, when they passes me to clock in in the morning, when they passed me to clock out for lunch and when they passed me to clock out to go home. They spoke Lithuanian or whatever to eachother when they did speak to eachother. There was no honest reason why I wasn't allowed wear earphones other than the owner was a weird control freak. I was eventually allowed a radio but only allowed listen to Radio 1. The reason for that I do not know! 

cactus flower wrote:

cookiemonster wrote:

In a place of previous employment it was verboten to wear earphones while you work.
The reason? As it was explained to me by the owner "somebody around you might be talking and you wouldn't be able to hear them and might think they were talking about you and you'd be angry about that which could be dangerous".

And were they?

Of course!

In England, until 1998 treason was punishable by death. Treason, according to the Act of 1351 which is still in force, includes having sex with the wife of the successor to the sovereign.

Therefore, Will Carling (amongst others) was liable to be hanged during the 1990s for having an affair with Diana