Whats the strangest law you've heard of??

Question

Where is it a law at and why was it passed...it you know????

Answer 1

In england we have lots of defunct laws from a long time ago that have never been repealed. For example:

1. It is still law that everyman over the age of 12(?) to do 1 hour of longbow practice a week

2. It is legal to shoot a welshman inside the city walls of York after dark with a bow and arrow

3. It is illegal to deface the image of a monach, e.g. bend a coin. To do so is high treson, and an offence punishable by death.

So if you want odd laws, come to Britain, because that what happens here.

(Oh and thanks to our current government, it is now illegal to creat a nuclear explosion.....)

Answer 2

Most of those laws you read about don't exist. I used to spend hours on LexisNexis trying to track them down. Urban myths. Check http://www.snopes.com first. (There's a reason why almost none of these "crazy laws" sites list a statutory reference that would enable to reader to find the law somewhere. The few citations you do see are invariably made up, as a Google search would prove since virtually all states now have their laws online.)

Here's a typical Snopes putdown of a purported law: http://www.snopes.com/religion/pi.htm (Ala. law redifining π as equaling 3 instead of 3.1415926...)

A lot of laws still on the books have been abrogated by court decision. Such as laws against contraception and sodomy. Others, relating to such things as horses and buggies, simply have no relevance to the modern world and are there because legislators were too lazy to clean up the statute book.

Someone else has said that sodomy (i.e., any sex but the missionary position) is illegal in Montana. Of course even if that were true, the Supreme court decision in Lawrence v. Texas
http://www.cnn.com/2003/LAW/06/26/scotus.sodomy/
http://supreme.justia.com/us/539/558/case.html
would have invalidated it. But a Google search shows that law attributed not to Montana but to the District of Columbia. It is too tiresome to look up these laws; if you want to do so, here's the DC Web site: http://government.westlaw.com/linkedslice/default.asp?SP=DCC-1000

Answer 3

1. (Washington) you can be arrested or fined for harassing bigfoot

2. (Rhode Island) you may not sell toothpaste and a toothbrush to the same customer on a Sunday

3. (Ohio) it is illegal to get a fish drunk

4. (Nebraska) whale fishing is illegal

5. (Georgia) You can t keep an ice cream cone in your back pocket on Sundays

hope this is what you meant : ) there are more but the strangest in opinion is #4 - how else are you supposed to stop those land and pool whales from invading!?!?

Answer 4

All the laws are strange and funny to me...*chuckle*... but the strangest one exists here in Canada.

It is illegal for minors to purchase tobacco products but use of such products for minors is not illegal.

When I first moved to Canada from Japan, some 10 year-old brats asked me to spare them cigarettes so I asked them for their ID. That's when one of them told me about this law - and I checked into it - and I still wouldn't give them smokes. I give them a piece of mind, instead - "You wanna be taller than a Japanese girl, don't you?"

Answer 5

Ever heard about Hudoon law? These are 1500 years old islamic laws, they have its sanction in god's word, no human agency can alter them, and they are still enacted with religious zeal and fervor in some muslim countries.

Answer 6

I'm not sure when it was passed but:

If you're walking in York with your Bow and Arrow and you see a Scotsman, you can shoot him.

And

Boys under 10 are not allowed to look at naked female shop manakins.

Answer 7

crazylaws.com is awsome example

in alabama You may not have an ice cream cone in your back pocket at any time.

In montanna (my daughters name) It is illegal for a man and a woman to have sex in any other position other than missionary style.

Donkeys are not allowed to sleep in bathtubs in Brooklyn, N.Y.

Answer 8

the law of thermal dynamics

Answer 9

Eyes for eyes. In UAE.

Answer 10

tat is is against the law to mustabate and illegal to have oral sex =p