Are there any laws in your area that are obsolete or no longer make sense?

Question

I have heard of laws that are still in the books that no longer makes sense. Are there in your area that you know of that no longer makes sense specifically to our time period?

Answer 1

In North Carolina it is illegal to masturbate. In fact, it is illegal to have sex in any other position than missionary. You also have to be legally married under NC law

Answer 2

I'm originally from Virginia, and it's legal for a man to beat his wife on the courhouse steps as long as the rod he uses has a width that is less than that of his thumb.

Answer 3

There is a list of funny laws on bored.com laws such as no ice cream cones are allowed in your back pocket or ...... your not allowed to shoot moose from an airplane....hundreds more it quite hilarious....

Answer 4

Go to THEATTORNEYSTORE.COM

They have an excellent "crazy law of the day" section, that they update daily.

Answer 5

LONDON (AFP) -

Queen Elizabeth II's speech in the parliament Tuesday may have been routine but at least nobody got bored to death. That would have been against the law.

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/afp/20071106/tuk-...-a7ad41d_1.html

Dying in parliament is an offense and is also by far the most absurd law in Britain, according to a survey of nearly 4,000 people by a television channel showing a legal drama series.

And though the lords were clad in their red and white ermine cloaks and ambassadors from around the world wore colourful national costumes, at least nobody turned up in a suit of armour. Illegal.

Other rules deemed utterly stupid included one that permits a pregnant woman to urinate in a policeman's hat and murdering bow-and-arrow-carrying Scotsmen within the city walls of York, northern England.

A law stating that in Liverpool, only a clerk in a tropical fish store is allowed to be publicly topless, was also ridiculous, said a poll of 3,931 people for U.K.T.V. Gold television out Tuesday.

Nearly half of those surveyed admitted to breaking the ban on eating mince pies on Christmas Day, which dates back to the 17th century and was originally designed to outlaw gluttony during the rule of the Puritan Oliver Crowmell.

The laws and other regulations were culled from published research into ancient legislation that has never been repealed although subsequent statutes have rendered them obsolete.

Respondents were given a shortlist and asked to vote.

Most ridiculous British laws:

1. It is illegal to die in the Houses of Parliament (27 percent)

2. It is an act of treason to place a postage stamp bearing the British monarch upside-down (seven percent)

3. In Liverpool, it is illegal for a woman to be topless except as a clerk in a tropical fish store (six percent)

4. Mince pies cannot be eaten on Christmas Day (five percent)

5. In Scotland, if someone knocks on your door and requires the use of your toilet, you must let them enter (four percent)

6. A pregnant woman can legally relieve herself anywhere she wants, including in a policeman's helmet (four percent)

7. The head of any dead whale found on the British coast automatically becomes the property of the king, and the tail of the queen (3.5 percent)

8. It is illegal to avoid telling the tax man anything you do not want him to know, but legal not to tell him information you do not mind him knowing (three percent)

9. It is illegal to enter the Houses of Parliament in a suit of armour (three percent)

10. In the city of York it is legal to murder a Scotsman within the ancient city walls, but only if he is carrying a bow and arrow (two percent).

Another one:

English donkey law branded an ***.


http://uk.news.yahoo.com/afp/20071113/tuk-...-a7ad41d_1.html

LONDON (AFP) - An ancient law banning an English town from holding a market because it is less than "a donkey ride" away from one in a rival town, was branded an *** Tuesday.

The centuries-old law is used by residents of South Shields near Newcastle to prevent their neighbours in North Shields -- just on the other side of the Tyne river -- from setting up a market.

"We have been trying for a number of years to get around this," said Maggie Richardson of the North Shields Chamber of Trade and Commerce, which wants to set up a weekly market.

"But every time we have approached South Tyneside Council, they say they were given a market charter some time in the 1200 region by king John, so that no one can set up a market within a day's donkey ride.

"It is a bizarre situation ... It's not funny, it's pathetic. The law definitely is an ***. We need a market because they bring vibrancy to the town centre."

South Tyneside Council, like the proverbial donkey, won't budge. "South Shields market is both vibrant and popular, and attracts thousands of visitors to the borough every year," said a spokesman.

"It is of great importance to South Tyneside and, as its owner, South Tyneside Council has a duty to protect it from rivals."

The donkey ride distance is commonly understood to mean six and two-thirds miles (10.7 kilometres) -- how far a trader was deemed to be able to travel from home, sell for eight hours, then return in a single day.

Answer 6

Where I'm from, marijuana is illegal. Isn't that silly?