What is the Dumbest Law?

A Russian cargo ship recently lost its cargo of timber whilst passing through the English Channel, a stretch of water between England and France. The wood started arriving onto the British shoreline a few days later. Many locals quickly heard of this free source of sawn timber and within no time at all many were seen to be loading the endless supply onto their vehicles. The police issued a statement that this amounted to theft; anyone caught with this wood in their possession could be prosecuted. Now whilst I am not condoning what these opportunists were doing, but the ship's owners are not going to come along and pick all this wood up, it would be a financial write off, an insurance claim. The wood would sit there and be an eyesore that the local authorities would have to clean up and at what cost to the already tight budgets of the taxpayer?

So with this in mind I looked at some silly but very real laws throughout the world.

As this was a British story, let me start with some odd or crazy laws from this island nation.

It is illegal to die in the houses of Parliament, what are they going to do prosecute the dead?

It is an act of treason to place a postage stamp upside down on an envelope.

Mince pies (sweet dried fruit), cannot be eaten on Christmas Day. These are made particularly for the festive period.

In Scotland, if someone knocks at your door wanting to use your bathroom you must let them.

In the UK, it is legal for a pregnant woman to relieve herself in public, anywhere that she wants.

It is illegal to enter the houses of Parliament in a suit of armour.

In the city of York, it is legal to kill a Scotsman within the ancient city walls, but only if he is carrying a bow and arrow. A similar law exists in Chester, about the Welsh.

Whilst these laws have never been removed they are not commonly used today.

Here are two from Europe, in Switzerland a man cannot relieve himself standing up after 10pm.In France it is illegal to name a pig Napoleon.

In Australia, children are not permitted to buy cigarettes, but they can smoke them. You may never leave your keys in a car that is unattended. This is one of my favourites; it is illegal to walk the streets wearing black clothing and shoes, with your face covered in black shoe polish, as this is the act of a cat burglar.

I used to work in China; I knew they had some odd laws. You can only have one child, any more and you must pay a fine. If you have more than one child you will be fined. To go to college you must be intelligent. Drivers of power driven vehicles who stop at pedestrian crossings can be fined. (So that's why they were always trying to run me over!)

In Zimbabwe, you are not permitted to make offensive gestures at a passing state motorcade.

I could now go on to list some of the best ones from the USA, but there are far too many to list here, one source of the best from America, listed state by state is called dumblaws.com and find out it is an international thing, I think someone out there from each country is trying to get the award for the most stupid to get through its own government.