The newspaper The Times has published 25 strangest and most funny laws of dissimilar countries. Inspired by the example of the British edition, here is another, more comprehensive, hit parade of the eccentric and frankly funny regulatings from the world legislative practice.
The peculiarities of the national legislations.
One may study the traditions and the peculiarities of the mentality of the nations by way of the strange laws. In this regard a form of the statute is the same product of culture as a movie, a book or a picture. Australians have shown themselves to be very naive persons in the alleged “mirror of laws: there is a law in Australia, which forbids to walk in the streets in black clothes, in felt shoes and with the face painted with blacking, because all the above-mentioned things constitute the costume of a night thief. Moreover, there is a law here, which orders the persons, who exercise the carrier’s trade for money, to take hay with them. Admittedly, no one sees to it that modern taxi-drivers cohere to this rule – they are lucky not to have been transporting their passengers by means of a team of horses for a long time already.
The inhabitants of Switzerland treat the repose of their associates overly respectfully. It occurred to the legislators of this very country to forbid discharging water down the toilet loudly after 10 p.m., because it may disturb the neighbours. However, the modern Swiss sanitary technology makes the violation of this law almost impossible. The waste tanks are produced with the heightened soundproofing; moreover, they are constructed in such a way that water flows down the particular pipes rather of coming tumbling down with a crash.
The city-state Singapore is world-famous for it is neatness and high fines for the undertake to violate this neatness. Thus they fine for the garbage, tossed out in the street, in the sum equivalent to 600 dollars. Moreover, the sale of chewing gum had been forbidden for 12 years here – a radical measure of the struggle versus the hooligans, who stick it anywhere. The prohibition was revoked only in 2004, when chewing gum appeared on the counters of the Singaporean drugstores.
The law, according to which women are prohibited from wearing pants, was passed in African Swaziland not long ago. The regulation was sanctioned by the local monarch, who proclaimed the return to the traditions, whereas pants represent the untraditional underwear for the women of Swaziland. The punishment for the wear of pants is rather humiliating: the soldiers snatch them off the women and tear them in little pieces. Admittedly, it remains unclear, how the arms of the law will see the lingerie, if according to the law, which was passed by the same monarch, the women of Swaziland more than 10 years old mustn’t wear the overknee skirts.
The contempt of the King (the Queen).
It is forbidden by law to trample on cash in Thailand. At initial sight the measure is perfectly senseless, nevertheless numerous details will make the circumstance clear. The matter is that the King of this country is represented on all the notes and coins of Thailand. Stepping on his effigy is a sign of disrespect for the monarch, for which the imprisonment is expected.
Finally, it is still prohibited to name the pigs after Napoleon in France. It must be noted that in this case the disseminate of George Orwell’s book “Animal farm” on the territory of the country must also be forbidden, because the hog a.k.a. Napoleon is one of the main characters of the work.
The survivals of the past.
Many strange laws, which are nominally presently in force, are not one thing more than the survivals of the past, at times of rather a remote one.
Most often times such regulatings are found in Great Britain and in the USA, where the legislation hasn’t been reconsidered exclusively over the ages. There even subsist the public groups in the USA, which fight for the abolition of the “foolish” laws. This occupation is not one of the easy ones: an absurd, long unused law needs to be found, after all, and it is likewise necessary to check the following fact up – what if it was already abolished?
Let’s consider, for example, the British law, brought up by The Times, which prescribes two hours of archery exercises per day for each male subject, who is more than 14 years old. This decree was issued by King Edward III as far back as the 14-th century; he is likewise famous for the prohibition of the ball game, which is known as football nowadays. Football was at last permitted in 1603. The British were officially freed from the obligation to exercise
archery daily underneath Queen Victoria, in 1863. Admittedly, there is a suspicion that they had stopped practicing it substantially earlier.
The Times likewise reminds that any freeman is permitted to lead the herd of sheep all over London Bridge duty-free in London. Moreover, a freeman has an prospect to lead geese in Cheapside. But a plague-stricken person is prohibited from taking a taxi in the streets.
Moreover, there exists a law, according to which two men are forbidden to have sex with each other in a house, where the third person is present. This law was enacted at the end of the 16-th century as the struggle versus the homosexual brothels, which appeared in the huge cities of England.
Private life and public morals.
A gynecologist has the right to consider in detail the genitals of a woman in Bahrain, notwithstanding he (she) can’t look directly at them, but only at their reflectiveness in the mirror. The sexual intercourse with animals is permitted by law in a number of Moslem countries, but completely with females. A person faces the chance of the death penalty for the liaison with a mail animal in Lebanon. They may decapitate for masturbation in Indonesia.
Only the so-called missionary position is permitted in the State of Florida, and it is forbidden to kiss the woman’s breast for the duration of the intercourse. It is not permitted to have sex involving the “horsewoman” position in Massachusetts.
The legislators of countries and states likewise show a somewhat unsuitable eagerness in the matter of the defence of public morals. A man in skirt may be arrested in Italy, for example. Of course it is clear, what men in skirts are in question, but what must the Scotch, which revere their traditions, do in Italy?
Women are prohibited from wearing patent-leather shoes in the State of Ohio: it is considered that shoes may reflect underclothes. It is prohibited to have been kissing for a longer amount of time of time than five minutes in Iowa.
The law of the State of Florida, according to which single women are prohibited from parachuting on Sundays, is the last one in this category. Perhaps it is also connected with public morals.
The hotchpotch.
It is prohibited to conceal anything from the tax officer in case you don’t want him to know it in the British regulatings concerning the tax evasion (issued in 2006). For all that in case you don’t mind if the tax officer gets to know of a heap of data, you are not obliged to report them to him.
It is prohibited to lead being blindfolded in the State of Alabama. It is strictly forbidden to water fish with alcohol in Ohio. It is not permitted to kill birds in the City of Boulder, Colorado. Moreover, it is unlawful to own domestic animals there. Thus everyone who keeps a cat or a dog is officially called “the attendant of the animal”.
A wife will have to get the written consent of her husband to have the dentures made in the State of Vermont. The head of any dead whale found ashore in London belongs to the King. The tail of such a whale belongs to the Queen in case if she needs the baleen for the corset.
The laws, which may be called absurd rather unambiguously, are also enacted in the post-Soviet region. Thus keeping not less than three contraceptive gimmicks in the medicine chest is prescribed for motorcar fanciers in Byelorussia. Not only women, but also men and even priests were mercilessly fined for the absence of contraceptive devices. Admittedly, according to recent data, the Byelorussian authorities have abolished this rule in 2007.
Nice condition
Not so impressive