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Weird, Stupid & Illogical Laws

Several archaic Irish laws to be struck from the books in 2014
Outdated legislation prevented Catholics from carrying guns and included corporal punishment for unlicensed begging
By IrishCentral Staff Writers,
Published Sunday, December 29, 2013, 9:30 AM Updated Sunday, December 29, 2013, 9:30 AM

Several archaic Irish laws will be struck from the books in 2014.
Photo by Google Images

Several archaic Irish laws will be struck from the books next year, including one centuries-old law preventing Catholics from carrying guns.

The review of outdated and obsolete legislation, the latest work on repealing defunct laws by the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform, has uncovered a long line of bizarre regulations initially put into place to keep order.

So far, 11 laws, orders and regulations have been identified for the scrapheap in 2014, the Belfast Telegraph reports.

A 1739 order of the Lord Lieutenant, William Cavendish, the Third Duke of Devonshire, that was made to preserve "the public peace and tranquillity of this Kingdom" demanded that arms, armour and ammunition be seized by force from "any Papist (or) reputed Papist."

Another regulation from King George III demanded that everyone across Britain and Ireland pay respects to the coming Union [of Britain & Ireland] of 1801.

"Subjects" were ordered to observe "a general fast and humiliation" to avoid "(God's) wrath and indignation" for their sins.

Another law offers a £200 reward to catch the owners of the Galway-based ship the Charming Sally who were accused of bringing convicts bound for America to Europe and selling them into foreign armies.

Other laws offering rewards include a 300-year-old proclamation offering a £500 reward to find the author of a book of "treasonable libels" against Queen Anne called "Honest Resolves" which was left in a coffee house in Dublin and a £20 reward offered to find "some idle and disorderly persons" who sneaked into the Phoenix Park after dark and killed one of the "King's deer."

A centuries-old law against begging stated that the penalty for unlicensed begging in Dublin was to be "tied to the end of a cart and whipped till his body be bloody." Other laws included a crackdown on swearing, gambling and the sale of commodities on the Sabbath, as well as a 1764 proclamation in the manhunt for a Kilkenny-based gang known as the "White Boys," the Belfast Telegraph states.

The review of archaic legislation follows the publication of laws being removed from pre-independence primary legislation in 2012.

"To date, the programme and its predecessor projects have produced the Statute Law Revision Acts 2005, 2007, 2009 and 2012. These Acts are the culmination of the most extensive statute law revision programme ever undertaken anywhere in the world and the most extensive set of repealing measures in the history of the state," said a spokesman for the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform.



Read more: http://www.irishcentral.com/news/Severa ... z2oyAB6Wge
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More on the above.

So we,re stilll at war with France. Is this still the case in the UK?

And some of the obsolete orders relate to events that still have echoes today. They include a declaration of war against France in 1744: part of the War of the Austrian Succession. A year later, in the same conflict, Irish exiles helped the French to victory at Fontenoy, a name still commemorated by several GAA clubs.

We haven,t forgotten Fontenoy.

Other measures for abolition include a 1690 prohibition on soldiers fighting duels; a 1668 proclamation offering rewards for the capture of named Irish rebels, dead or alive; and a 1665 order appointing the first Wednesday of every month as a day of fasting and penance for the relief of Bubonic plague in London.

The instruments under review in this phase all predate 1820. A full schedule of the 4,500 proposed for repeal, and 38 the Government wants to retain, are listed on the department’s website per.gov.ie/slrp. After a public consultation process, a Bill will be prepared to revoke those deemed obsolete.

http://www.irishtimes.com/news/crime-an ... -1.1938163
 
A law stating that the Queen is "king of Ireland" is among thousands of obsolete statutes to be repealed by the Irish government.

It is one of 5,782 regulations and orders dating from before the Republic of Ireland became independent that are being cleared from the statute books. It is the largest repeal of outdated laws carried out in any country.

The 1542 proclamation being repealed declares that the English crown shall be "King of Ireland". ...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-31863846
 
Snow good if you can't have a snowball fight.

A nine-year-old boy from the town of Severance in Colorado has successfully campaigned for the repeal of an archaic ban on snowball fights.

The rule was part of an old ordinance outlawing the throwing of missiles, such as stones, at property or people within the town. Dane Best says he took up the cause on behalf of his friends and classmates. He delivered a presentation on the subject to a local town board, who backed his message on Monday night.

"The children of Severance want the opportunity to have a snowball fight like the rest of the world," Dane said during his three-minute presentation, the Greeley Tribune reports. "The law was created many years ago. Today's kids need a reason to play outside."

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-46439279
 
Don't overdo it when celebrating your birthday.

A popular Tajik pop star has been fined for breaching her country's law on celebrations after enjoying her birthday in the company of friends and fellow singers, local media report.

Firusa Khafizova was fined 5,000 somoni (530 US dollars) by a court in the capital Dushanbe after she posted videos of her party on her Instagram account, featuring her and her guests performing on stage. Article 8 of Tajikistan's regulations on traditions, celebrations and customs bans birthday celebrations outside the family home. ...

Tajikistan's law on the observation of national traditions was first introduced in 2007 and expanded in 2017 to include rules for conducting weddings, funerals and celebrations of children being born. The measures impose strict limits on the number of guests and dishes, and the duration of festivities, allowed. They also ban the slaughtering of livestock for funeral ceremonies.

The idea behind the law was to prevent excessive spending on family occasions and to ease the debt many incurred to pay for such events.
Local media reports observe that the rules are viewed with amusement in the west but that human rights activists in Tajikistan see them as an attempt by the authorities to intervene in citizens' private lives, in violation of their rights and freedoms. ...

https://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-news-from-elsewhere-47132808
 
Is there a "Really Stupid Laws" thread?

Ohio : We don't care if something's medically impossible, do it anyway.

A bill to ban abortion introduced in the Ohio state legislature requires doctors to “reimplant an ectopic pregnancy” into a woman’s uterus – a procedure that does not exist in medical science – or face charges of “abortion murder”.

This is the second time practising obstetricians and gynecologists have tried to tell the Ohio legislators that the idea is currently medically impossible.


https://www.theguardian.com/us-news...eme-abortion-bill-reimplant-ectopic-pregnancy

Pennsylvania : Hold my beer.

House Bill 1890, the Pennsylvania Final Disposition of Fetal Remains, which provides for prison sentences and fines for anyone disposing of a fertilized human egg without obtaining a death certificate and then holding a funeral for it.

https://boingboing.net/2019/12/01/midwestern-gilead.html
 
Is there a "Really Stupid Laws" thread? ...

No. This thread is the closest one. This thread has been re-titled to include "stupid" and "illogical" items.
 
Is there a "Really Stupid Laws" thread?


Pennsylvania : Hold my beer.

House Bill 1890, the Pennsylvania Final Disposition of Fetal Remains, which provides for prison sentences and fines for anyone disposing of a fertilized human egg without obtaining a death certificate and then holding a funeral for it.

https://boingboing.net/2019/12/01/midwestern-gilead.html

What idiots. I wonder if anybody ever bothered getting a death certificate for an early miscarriage back in 1890. There are millions of fertilized eggs flushed down toilets every year, frequently when women are unaware they are pregnant at all. Not every fertilized egg is going to become a person. Nature gets rid of all sorts of "babies" at the early stages.
 
Ooops! Missed that one entirely. Thank you.

I've just been reeling (fuming) about that reimplated ectopic pregnancy nonsense when I first read about it. So let me restate this: Will anyone ever be held responsible for not getting a death certificate for an unperceived pregnancy that results in an early miscarriage? And imagine the number of death certificates that would have to be issued every year for the early miscarriages that ARE perceived. The mind boggles.
 
The polemics are really extreme and irrational here. A woman in Alabama was indicted, but not prosecuted, for manslaughter when she miscarried after being shot:
https://www.thecut.com/2019/06/alabama-woman-shot-in-stomach-charged-with-manslaughter.html

This year Georgia passed a "heartbeat" law stating that once a fetal heartbeat is detectable, that fetus is a fully recognized human being, and termination of the pregnancy would be murder. Since it's not easy to prove a miscarriage happened naturally, there are questions about whether women will be indicted for murder simply because of circumstances beyond their control.
https://slate.com/news-and-politics...bortion-subjects-women-to-life-in-prison.html

(And don't forget, attempts to criminalize misfortune tend to disproportionately affect people of color . . .)
It would be tough enough to have to consider getting an abortion or not, especially if financial stability or safety is at stake.
Oh, don't get me going!
 
... Top of that list was a local bye-law from Ohio in the US, that banned residents from getting a fish drunk. ...

An eventual inquiry into this oft-cited law found no evidence it ever existed - at least not in Ohio ...
Why is it illegal to get a fish drunk in Ohio? The short answer is, it’s not—not as a matter of record in the Ohio Revised Code, anyway. And, even more disappointing, there is no hilarious/horrible story of a state legislator doing goldfish bombs as part of a fraternity hazing ritual at The Ohio State University. In an email, the Ohio Department of Natural Resources told Supercall that the ban on drunk fish, “was most likely an old rule relating to silo runoff and stream pollution. And that rule or wording no longer exists.” In its place is section 1531.29 of the ORC:

No person shall place or dispose of in any manner, any garbage, waste, peelings of vegetables or fruits, rubbish, ashes, cans, bottles, wire, paper, cartons, boxes, parts of automobiles, wagons, furniture, glass, oil, or anything else of an unsightly or unsanitary nature on any state owned, controlled, or administered land, or in any ditch, stream, river, lake, pond, or other watercourse, except those waters which do not combine or effect a junction with natural surface or underground waters, or upon the bank thereof where the same is liable to be washed into the water either by ordinary flow or floods. This section does not apply to any substance placed under authority of a permit issued under section 6111.04 of the Revised Code or exempted by such section from its terms.

No mention of alcohol or fish anywhere. But the Ohio Department of Natural Resources likely sited silo runoff regulations as the source of the supposed drunk fish law because that runoff can include alcohol. Silage, which is a mixture of plants used as animal feed, can be kept in silos where it can ferment, creating ethanol. Dumping that ethanol-laden waste into the water is bad for both water quality and fish well-being.

But here’s the thing: We couldn’t turn up a reference specifically to silo runoff in any old versions of the ORC. We also couldn’t find any mention of a prohibition on drunk fish earlier than the late ‘90s. There were, however, several mentions of an identical law against inebriating fish in Oklahoma dating back to March 1979. ...
SOURCE: https://www.thrillist.com/drink/why-you-cant-get-a-fish-drunk
 
Getting rid of old legal instruments.

They were our version of the American Wild West’s ‘wanted posters’ — offering rewards of up to £2,000 for information leading to the arrest of suspects behind cattle rustling, jail breaks, arson attacks, beatings, riots, rapes, robberies, and murders.

Published in the Dublin Gazette and London Gazette during the Tithe War, Catholic Emancipation and Famine era, they related to all forms of criminal activity such as waylaying, robbing, attacking, and wounding, and also referenced severe, inhumane and unmerciful beatings, causing death by throwing stones or with blows to the head with a pitchfork, setting fire to houses, out-houses, cow-houses, hayricks, barns, and oat-mills, posting threatening notices regarding land, voting and potatoes, and beatings with sticks and stones and nettles.

They form the bulk of the estimated 3,000 statutory and prerogative instruments made between 1821 and 1860, which are now set to be revoked following a major trawl of the statute books.

They were identified for removal by the Law Reform Commission, through the Statute Law Revision Programme (SLRP) process, the national programme to identify and remove obsolete and spent primary and secondary legislation from Ireland’s legislative stock because they have ceased to have effect or have become unnecessary.

One of the proclamations slated to be removed is linked to an infamous trial during the tithe wars arising out of a bitter dispute with three notorious landlords in north Cork — Michael Creagh, Rear Admiral Evans, and George Bond Lowe — who were hated for their treatment of tenant farmers. ...

Others facing removal encouraged piety and virtue and prohibited vice and immorality, with one published in the London Gazette on Monday, June 28, 1830, which reads:

“We do expect and require that all persons of honour or in place of authority shall give a good example by their own virtue and piety and do their utmost to contribute to the discountancy of persons of dissolute and debauched lives that they being reduced by that means to shame and contempt for their lucid, evil actions and behaviour may be thereby also enforced the sooner to reform their ill habits and practices.” ...

https://www.irishexaminer.com/news/arid-40837616.html
 
In the mood.

Did you know that being "in control of a cow while drunk" is illegal in the UK?

What about operating a "self-propelled machine" at more than four miles an hour? Or carrying a plank of wood across a footpath? These laws are decades and occasionally centuries old, but what would happen if you deliberately broke them in front of the police?

YouTuber Max Fosh is on a mission to find out, complete with real cow and insane amount of booze.

While this specific question has been asked before, no one has quite gone the distance like Fosh- unloading a cow in the middle of a busy London street is honestly worth an entire video on its own.

https://boingboing.net/2023/10/30/breaking-archaic-laws-in-front-of-police.html
 
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