Big Government, Small Brains

We've all heard the stories, visited the various sites, and in some way or another found out about a strange law that makes absolutely zero sense. So why for the love of god do these strange laws even exist? Filler material to ensure that the filing drawer is as full as it can be? Use up excess paper lying around the office? Personally I’m torn between the practical joke theory and the “I was drunk at the pub one night…” theory. While i understand a few of these might have meaning, having a writen form of those law is still quite redundant. What are your theorys/opinions of how/why these laws came to be?


Examples of these laws can be found here:
http://www.strangefacts.com/laws.html
http://www.dumblaws.com/
Or just Bing it.

Excuse me, but what the *fuck* has the size of the government have to do with the idiocies of common law?

If you checked, these are all *state* laws, so they have little to do with big, federal government.

In other words, stop bringing your libertarian agenda into each and every issue.

You have such laws, because unlike continental law, your laws are derived from customs and tradition, *precedence* if you will, instead the other way around as its done in civil (AKA continental) law, where the laws are laid down first (by a Parliament).

Sure some of these laws are long outdated, but since in practice enforcing them is up to the judges a common law system has no massive pressure to modernize or get rid of them.

Check the second link before you question me. There is a section for international laws. And i chose that title merely for the comic value, not for the accuracy of anything. And apparently you didnt undertstand what i meant by "dumb laws".

I suppose i should provide samples for those that judge too hastily on what is a "dumb law.":
In Singapore it is illegal to chew gum.
In tennesee it is illegal to sleep and drive at the same time (only state that has this as a written law).
In Florida it is illegal to bring livestock onto a schoolbus.

*Sigh* Let's explain this using one of your own examples:


Imagine that a cop pulls someone over because he sees that they're driving erratically, and it turns out that the driver kept falling asleep.

The cop takes him to court for this.

The sleeping driver turns up with a brilliant defense lawyer, and gets off scot free because technically it isn't illegal to sleep at the wheel. Because of this loophole, a dangerous driver who can't stay awake in his car gets back on the road with no repercussions.

To avoid this circumstance in the future, the state passes a law making it explicitly illegal to sleep while driving, thus an apparently "Stupid" law arises.

Take that example, and mold it to fit with most of the strange laws that exist and you will probably see a similar story behind it. It is, as Flaser said, all about precedent.

the place called earth is slowly becoming hell.. if im right i've heard something from a well known poet or whatever he/she is that heaven has no rules and hell has tons of them. :D well at least you have laws that's being abide here in where am i it's total useless the goverment and the people here are crabs.

I know that both America, and the UK have what we call "soft laws" that means, an as Flaser accurately said, they are derived from custom and tradition, therefore the judge has to interpret the law according to previous cases, or mold it according to the issue at hand.

I'm Mexican and live in a country ruled by "hard laws" that would mean that almost everything is written down, and the judge doesn't interpret it, he just renders his judgement according to what the book says.

Note: Please forgive me if my English is not understandable, that is because I'm trying to translate very specific juridic terms that exist only in Spanish, though English may have words or phrases that express the same idea.

You said:
"In Singapore it is illegal to chew gum.
In tennesee it is illegal to sleep and drive at the same time (only state that has this as a written law).
In Florida it is illegal to bring livestock onto a schoolbus."

Now common sense would dictate those laws are stupid, however in my country there is a phrase which is one of the cornerstones of our law: "Lo que no esta prohibido, está permitido." That would be translated into: "That which is not forbidden, is allowed."

And trust me people can be very deceiving or come up with strange ideas that may bypass laws.

In Ohio it illegal to speak English... gotta speak American. I shit you not.
Arizona you can't sleep with a donkey in a bathtub.
Kentucky it illegal to eat fried chicken with a fork.

A lot of these laws are archaic, but haven't been taken out of the official laws of the country for whatever reason. Laziness, too obscure, whatever, really. For example, where I live, all pubs that are built are supposed to have a hitching post outside for horses, but you don't see it happening.

Because a woman was driving an RV and had the brilliant idea to go to the back to get some coffee while no one was at the wheel. The RV crashed, and the woman sued the company because there wasn't a damn sign saying "do not leave the wheel while the vehicle is in motion"

Well indeed these laws are useless, strange and insane but regardless somehow they got pass their legislators and become adopted as a law. If i remember correctly you can ask your states legislators to propose a law or what not and if that is true then it is the people that are clearly just trolling the world.

That's what we hire lawyers for.



That Singapore law banning chewing gum is to prevent littering, although I love my chewing gum it's bloody disgusting to find someone else's gum on your chair or under your desk. Apparently they've relaxed the law a bit but it's still illegal to import.
Yes, it should be illegal to sleep and drive at the same time, like Grover said it stops idiots from getting off on technicalities.
Florida's law isn't stupid it's perfectly reasonable to have a law disallowing the bringing of livestock onto a schoolbus. How would you feel if someone decided to bring his milk cow in for show and tell?

Here in Australia in certain states it's illegal to ride your bike on the footpath but cops don't bother to enforce it because it's a waste of time and resources.

Sure its perfectly logical to not bring livestock onto a bus. But why the fuhell do we need a written form of that law? Or the many other laws that seem like logical common sense issues? And while i get the technicality thing, it still doesnt make sense to have a written form of those laws either, I mean why not just put a subtext thing into another law that that law is related to?

^Doesn't seem to understand how legal systems work...

Because common sense is a super power these days.
Just google up how many people sue for stupid things, some guy stuck a drill up his nose to pick it then sued because the manual didn't say anything about sticking the drill up your nose.

Edit: Although it may be common sense to most people someone will bring livestock onto a bus.

It seems a bit silly to be criticizing "dumb laws". Most were written decades if not over a century ago in a different time. More still are thanks to initiative and referendum. Finally, some seemingly ridiculously obvious laws are because of lawsuits.

How much do you understand the process of lawmaking, anyway?