99 Fun Facts About Weird Laws

Which Asian country bans the sale and import of chewing gum?

Singapore's ban dates from 1992; therapeutic, dental and nicotine gum are exempt, but only a doctor or pharmacist can sell them.

Until 2013, women in Paris technically needed police permission to wear which garment in public?

The 1800 ordinance was never repealed until France's women's-rights minister declared it void in 2013; painter Rosa Bonheur had to apply for permission in the 1850s to wear trousers to livestock markets.

Britain's Licensing Act 1872 makes it an offence to be drunk in public in charge of which animal?

A cow: section 12 of the Licensing Act 1872 makes it an offence to be drunk on a highway or public place while in charge of 'any carriage, horse, cattle, or steam engine', or while possessing a loaded firearm.

The UK's Salmon Act 1986 created the offence of handling salmon in what manner?

Handling salmon 'in suspicious circumstances' means receiving or disposing of fish you could reasonably believe was illegally fished; a 2009 amendment widened it to trout, eels and lampreys.

Cutting down which specific type of plant without a permit can lead to a felony charge in Arizona?

Harming a saguaro is a class-four felony in Arizona carrying up to three years and nine months in prison; the often-repeated 25-year sentence is a myth.

Skamania County, Washington, passed an ordinance on April 1, 1969 forbidding the killing of what?

Bigfoot: Ordinance 69-01 made killing a Sasquatch punishable by up to a $10,000 fine and five years in prison; despite its April Fools' Day date it was genuine, and a 1984 amendment declared the creature an endangered species.

Which US state made sharing passwords for subscription streaming services a crime in 2011?

Tennessee's 2011 law added subscription entertainment logins to its theft-of-services statute; aimed at bulk resellers of passwords, it made theft under $500 a misdemeanor and anything above that a felony.

In Switzerland it is illegal to keep which pet on its own, because solitude is considered harmful to it?

Guinea pigs are herd animals, so Switzerland's 2008 animal-welfare ordinance requires them to be kept at least in pairs; a Swiss service even rents out a companion when one of a pair dies.

Which chocolate treat is legal in Canada and Mexico but illegal to import into the United States?

Kinder Surprise eggs hide a toy capsule, which the 1938 Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act bars as a 'non-nutritive object' embedded in confectionery; US border agents have quoted fines of up to $2,500 per egg.

Which country's 2010 Tobacco Control Act banned the sale of tobacco products nationwide?

Bhutan's 2010 act banned tobacco sales in the name of Gross National Happiness, though smoking itself stayed legal; a 2021 amendment lifted the sales ban to curb smuggling from India during the pandemic.

How was the 43-letter name Swedish parents gave their son in 1996 pronounced?

Albin: the Halmstad parents said 'Brfxxccxxmnpcccclllmmnprxvclmnckssqlbb11116' was pronounced 'Albin'; the court rejected it, upheld the 5,000-kronor fine, and then refused their fallback proposal of simply 'A'.

In 1941 which US state made religious snake handling a felony punishable by death?

Georgia's 1941 statute made handling venomous snakes in religious services a felony, with death as the possible penalty when someone died; juries would not convict under it, and it was repealed in 1968.

London's Metropolitan Police Act 1839 outlawed 'wantonly disturbing' residents by doing what?

Ringing doorbells: section 54 forbids 'wilfully and wantonly' disturbing any inhabitant by pulling or ringing a doorbell or knocking at a door without lawful excuse, alongside making slides on ice or snow and 'furious driving'.

South Korea's 2011 'Cinderella Law' barred children under 16 from doing what between midnight and 6 a.m.?

Playing online video games: the Shutdown Law blocked under-16s from online gaming between midnight and 6 a.m.; teenagers got round it with adults' resident registration numbers, and the rule was repealed in 2021.

Which Italian city banned feeding the pigeons in its main square in 2008?

Venice outlawed feeding the pigeons of St Mark's Square from May 2008, ending the licensed grain-sellers' trade; the birds' droppings were blamed for corroding the square's marble and mosaics.

Which is the only country with a legal, regulated market in human organs, covering kidneys from living donors?

Iran runs the regulated market for kidneys from living donors; India passed laws against organ sales, though the trade persists there illegally.

An Icelandic father could not register his daughter as "Camilla" because which letter is not in Icelandic?

C is missing from the 32-letter Icelandic alphabet, along with Q, W and Z, so the girl was registered as 'Kamilla'; the Naming Committee keeps a register of approved names and rules on any new one.

Which Sardinian sheep-milk cheese, made with live maggots, is banned from sale in Italy?

Casu martzu is pecorino left for cheese-fly larvae to digest into a soft, pungent paste; it fails Italian and EU food-hygiene rules, so it changes hands informally at roughly twice the price of ordinary pecorino.

Which of these US states bans buying a car on a Sunday under a blue law?

Indiana is one of roughly a dozen states whose blue laws close car dealerships on Sundays; Texas and Utah go a different way, making dealers close on either Saturday or Sunday.

In 1949 Canada's Parliament made it a criminal offence to publish or sell what?

The 'Fulton Bill', pushed by MP Davie Fulton, defined a crime comic as any magazine or book substantially depicting real or fictitious crimes in pictures.

Since 1971 the United States has banned imports of haggis because it contains which ingredient?

The rule covers all lungs, since stomach acid and phlegm can enter them during slaughter; the separate BSE-era ban on British lamb was lifted in 2022 but the lung ban stayed.

'Zion curtains' were partitions that Utah law required in restaurants to hide what from diners?

Bartenders mixing drinks: Utah made restaurants prepare and pour alcohol behind opaque partitions so children would not see drinks being made; the 2017 legislature let restaurants take the barriers down.

In 2000 the mayor of Le Lavandou, France, formally outlawed what after being refused a new cemetery?

Dying: mayor Gil Bernardi's 2000 decree forbade residents to die after a court blocked a new cemetery; Cugnaux copied the stunt in 2007 and was promptly allowed to enlarge its graveyard, and Sarpourenx followed in 2008.

Kentucky's constitution bars from public office anyone who has taken part in what?

A duel: section 228 makes every officeholder swear they have not fought a duel with deadly weapons, sent or accepted a challenge, or acted as a second; the oath dates from the 1850 constitution.

Which US state outlawed self-service gasoline in 1949 and requires attendants to pump fuel?

New Jersey's 1949 Retail Gasoline Dispensing Safety Act, passed after lobbying by service-station owners, made attendant-only pumping the rule; Oregon, the last other holdout, allowed self-service statewide in 2023.

Bavaria's 1516 beer purity law, the Reinheitsgebot, allowed only water, hops and which other ingredient?

Barley was the third ingredient; yeast was not yet understood, and the same law fixed beer prices and made confiscation the penalty for impure brews.

In what country is it legally possible to marry a dead person under certain conditions?

The current rule dates from 1959, after the Malpasset Dam collapse killed the fiancé of a pregnant woman; the President must approve each case.

In the city of Gainesville, Georgia, what specific utensil is prohibited when eating fried chicken?

A fork: Gainesville's 1961 ordinance requiring fried chicken to be eaten by hand was a publicity stunt for the self-styled poultry capital of the world; in 2009 police staged a 91-year-old visitor's arrest and the mayor dismissed the charge.

In 1659 the Massachusetts Bay Colony outlawed celebrating which holiday, with a fine of five shillings?

Christmas: Puritans saw it as a popish festival with no biblical basis, so the 1659 law fined celebrants five shillings; the ban was lifted in 1681, but Boston did not embrace the holiday until the mid-1800s.

In 2002 the UN Human Rights Committee upheld a French town's ban on which activity?

Dwarf-tossing: France's Conseil d'État ruled in 1995 that Morsang-sur-Orge could ban it as contrary to human dignity, and in Wackenheim v. France the UN committee agreed, even though the performer objected to losing his livelihood.

Citizens of which country are legally barred from the gaming rooms of their own casino?

The Monte Carlo Casino has taken the money of visitors since the 1860s, but Monégasques may only enter the building's other areas.

In what year was absinthe banned in the United States?

1912: the US Department of Agriculture barred absinthe that year under the Pure Food and Drug Act; the Netherlands had acted in 1909, Switzerland in 1910 and France in 1915, while Spain and Portugal never banned it.

Since 2007 which country's government must approve reincarnated Tibetan lamas?

China's State Administration for Religious Affairs issued Order No. 5 in 2007, requiring monasteries to apply to the government for approval before anyone is recognised as a reincarnated tulku.

Chicago's 1881 'ugly law' imposed a $1 fine on people who did what?

Appeared in public if 'unsightly': Chicago barred anyone 'diseased, maimed, mutilated or in any way deformed so as to be an unsightly or disgusting object' from public view; the last such ordinance was repealed in 1974.

Which of these US states bans billboards statewide?

Only four states do: Hawaii since 1927, Alaska since statehood in 1959, Vermont since 1968 and Maine since 1977.

On Japan's sacred island of Itsukushima, which two events have been banned near the shrine since 1878?

Births and deaths: to preserve the Shinto purity of Itsukushima Shrine, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, the heavily pregnant and the terminally ill are expected to cross to the mainland, and the island has no cemetery.

In which US state is it illegal to collect seaweed after dark?

New Hampshire's RSA 207:48, in the fish and game statutes, forbids carrying away seaweed or rockweed from below the high-water mark 'between daylight in the evening and daylight in the morning'.

In Finland a speeding fine can exceed €100,000 because the penalty is scaled to what?

The driver's income: up to 20 km/h over the limit draws a fixed petty fine, but from 21 km/h over Finland switches to income-based day-fines, which is how businessman Anders Wiklöf was fined about €121,000 in 2023.

In 1863 which US city made it a crime to appear in public in 'a dress not belonging to his or her sex'?

San Francisco's 1863 ordinance made appearing in 'a dress not belonging to his or her sex' part of its indecency law; Columbus (1848) and Chicago (1851) had gone earlier, and such bans lingered into the 1970s.

In 1960 the FDA banned the oil of which plant, once root beer's defining flavour, from foods?

Sassafras oil is mostly safrole, which animal studies had shown to be carcinogenic, so the FDA barred it as a food additive in 1960; modern root beers use artificial flavour or safrole-free sassafras extract.

Until 1994, which trade was barred by the Shops Act 1950 from doing business on Sundays in Scotland?

Section 67 of the act singled out barbers and hairdressers; the restriction outlived most other British Sunday-trading rules by decades.

Burials stopped in Longyearbyen, Svalbard, in 1950 because bodies in the cemetery were doing what?

Not decomposing in permafrost: bodies in Longyearbyen's cemetery stayed preserved, which is why scientists exhumed 1918 influenza victims there in 1998 hoping to recover the virus; the dead have been flown to mainland Norway ever since.

In which Caribbean country is it illegal for civilians to wear camouflage clothing?

Barbados bans civilians from wearing camouflage, a rule shared by Jamaica, Saint Lucia and several other Caribbean states so that nobody can pass as military personnel; tourists' camo gear can be confiscated on arrival.

Which US state prohibits both the production and sale of foie gras?

California's 2004 law, in force from 2012, bars both force-feeding birds to fatten their livers and selling the product; the US Supreme Court declined to hear a challenge in 2019, leaving the ban standing.

Iceland's Naming Committee refused the girl's name 'Blær' because the word is grammatically what?

Masculine: Icelandic law requires names to match the child's gender and 'blær' (gentle breeze) is a masculine noun; Blær Bjarkardóttir won her 2013 court case citing Halldór Laxness's female character Blær in The Fish Can Sing (1957).

The first widely successful law criminalising jaywalking was enacted in 1925 in which city?

Los Angeles passed its 1925 traffic ordinance, drafted with the auto lobby, which reserved the roadway for cars and fined pedestrians crossing mid-block; its pedestrian-control rules became the template for cities across the country.

New York State's 1845 anti-mask law was originally passed in response to disputes between whom?

Tenant farmers in the Hudson Valley had been disguising themselves to attack rent collectors; the law was later upheld against Ku Klux Klan hoods.

Which country was the first to impose a total ban on lightweight plastic bags, in 2002?

Bangladesh banned thin polythene bags in 2002 after they clogged drains and worsened the 1998 floods; dozens of countries followed, and Kenya's 2017 ban became one of the strictest, with fines and even jail.

Which African country banned jogging in groups in 2014?

Burundi's president Pierre Nkurunziza banned group jogging in March 2014, claiming opposition supporters used the runs as cover for plotting; members of the opposition MSD party were later jailed for jogging together.

A US state House passed a bill in 1897 that would have legally set which constant to 3.2?

Pi (π): Indiana's House passed the 1897 bill 67-0; its amateur author's 'squaring of the circle' implied π = 3.2, and Purdue professor C. A. Waldo talked the Senate into postponing it indefinitely.

Which US state's legislature passed an 1881 resolution fixing how its name is pronounced?

Arkansas: the 1881 resolution declared the name pronounced 'Arkansaw', with the final 's' silent, after the state's two US senators had been saying it differently.

Which New York mayor banned pinball in the 1940s and smashed machines with a sledgehammer?

Fiorello La Guardia banned pinball as a mobster racket in 1942 and posed smashing machines with a sledgehammer; the ban lasted until 1976, when writer Roger Sharpe called a shot in a Manhattan courtroom to prove skill.

Until 2008, which Canadian province required margarine to be sold colourless, not yellow?

Quebec, pressed by its dairy lobby, required margarine to be sold pale rather than butter-yellow until the rule was scrapped in 2008; Ontario had only allowed butter-coloured margarine in 1995.

Which US state was the last to repeal its ban on yellow-coloured margarine, in 1967?

Wisconsin, the dairy state, kept its ban on yellow margarine until 1967, long after margarine makers had learned to sell white blocks with a packet of yellow dye for customers to knead in.

Massachusetts became the first state to ban which bar promotion statewide, in 1984?

Happy hours: Massachusetts banned discounted-drink promotions in 1984 after a drunk-driving death that followed one; Utah, Alaska and Rhode Island are among the states that later adopted similar bans.

A 2004 Los Angeles ordinance bans aerosol silly string in Hollywood on which night of the year?

Halloween night in Hollywood draws the crowds the city ordinance was written for; fines can reach $1,000.

Britain's Easter Act 1928, which would fix Easter between 9 and 15 April, has what status?

Passed but never brought into force: the Act needs a commencement order approved by both Houses after regard to the churches' views, and no government has ever laid one.

Which item does a 1313 statute of Edward II forbid wearing in the UK Parliament?

Armour: the 1313 Statute forbidding Bearing of Armour ordered that no one come armed to Parliament, so Edward II's barons would stop arriving in mail; it remains on the statute book with no known modern prosecution.

Under UK law, sturgeon and which other animals are 'royal fish' belonging to the King?

Whales: the 1324 statute Prerogativa Regis made whales and sturgeon taken in British waters 'royal fish'; tradition gives the monarch the head and the queen the tail, supposedly for corset whalebone.

Britain's Treason Felony Act 1848 makes it an offence to advocate what in print?

Abolishing the monarchy: section 3 of the 1848 Act makes it a felony to 'compass, imagine, invent, devise or intend' deposing the monarch and to publish that intent; the Guardian's 2001 challenge ended with the Lords declining to rule.

Which country's 1925 Hat Law banned the fez and required European-style hats instead?

Turkey's Hat Law (No. 671) of November 1925 was part of Atatürk's secularising reforms; it is one of the reform laws shielded from repeal by Article 174 of the 1982 constitution, though rarely enforced.

Which ruler introduced a beard tax in 1698, with payers carrying a copper 'beard token'?

Peter the Great imposed the beard tax in 1698 to westernise Russian dress; payers carried a copper token as proof, police could forcibly shave refusers, and the tax was not abolished until 1772.

Until 2011, Russian law classified beer as what, rather than as an alcoholic drink?

Anything under 10% alcohol counted as food, so beer could be sold almost anywhere at any hour.

In 2011 Belarusian police arrested protesters, including a one-armed man, for doing what?

The silent applause protests earned Lukashenko and his police the 2013 Ig Nobel Peace Prize.

In 2002 President Niyazov renamed January after himself and April after whom?

His mother: April became Gurbansoltan, after Niyazov's mother Gurbansoltan Eje, while January became Türkmenbaşy after the president himself; the old month names were restored in 2008, two years after his death.

Under President Niyazov, learner drivers had to pass an exam on which book?

The Ruhnama, Niyazov's own 'Book of the Soul', was required reading for the driving test, for job interviews and as a school subject; the president claimed reading it three times guaranteed a place in heaven.

In 2001 President Niyazov outlawed opera, ballet and what else as 'unturkmen-like'?

Circuses: Niyazov closed opera, ballet and the circus in 2001 as alien to Turkmen culture; in 2004 he also told citizens to give up gold teeth and chew on bones to strengthen their own.

Japan's 2008 'metabo law' had employers and local governments measure what on adults?

Waist size: the 2008 law had annual health checks measure the waists of adults aged 40 to 74, with limits of 85 cm for men and 90 cm for women; employers missing targets face financial penalties.

In 2002 Greece passed Law 3037, which effectively banned what in all public places?

Electronic games: Law 3037 banned all electronic games in public places, including internet cafés, to stop illegal gambling after a PASOK MP was filmed at a video-poker machine; cafe owners fought it until Law 4002 replaced it in 2011.

Beer was illegal in Iceland for 74 years until 1 March of which year?

Icelanders still mark Beer Day every 1 March; spirits and wine had been legal again for decades before beer was.

Which country deleted Friday 30 December 2011 from its calendar by jumping the date line?

Samoa skipped Friday 30 December 2011 entirely, moving from UTC-11 to UTC+13 so that it sits three hours ahead of Sydney instead of 21 hours behind, in step with its main trading partners.

Why is escaping from prison not itself a crime in Germany, Mexico and Belgium?

The law accepts wanting freedom is human: German, Mexican and Belgian law treats a bare escape as a natural urge rather than a crime, though any violence, damage or bribery used to get out is punished in its own right.

Ontario's Apology Act 2009 says that saying sorry does not automatically count as what?

An admission of guilt: Ontario's Apology Act 2009 says an apology does not constitute an admission of fault or liability and cannot be used as evidence of it in civil proceedings; British Columbia passed Canada's first such act in 2006.

France's El Khomri labour law gave workers a 'right to disconnect' from what in 2017?

Work email after hours: the loi Travail of 2016, in force from January 2017, requires firms with more than 50 staff to negotiate when employees may ignore work messages; it creates the right without defining it.

Thailand's lèse-majesté law carries what maximum prison term per count against the king?

15 years: Section 112 of Thailand's Criminal Code sets three to fifteen years per count for defaming, insulting or threatening the king, queen, heir or regent; counts stack, producing sentences of several decades.

Mexico City's Hoy No Circula keeps each car off the road one weekday based on what?

Plates ending in 5 or 6 stay home on Mondays, 7 or 8 on Tuesdays, and so on through the week.

Which country was the first to outlaw all corporal punishment of children, in 1979?

Sweden's 1979 ban on all corporal punishment of children was the world's first; Finland followed in 1983 and Norway in 1987, and the share of Swedish parents who smacked fell from a majority to a small minority.

In a 2009 referendum, Swiss voters approved a constitutional ban on building what?

Minarets: the November 2009 initiative passed with 57.5% of the vote despite the government urging a no; only four cantons, including Geneva and Vaud, rejected it, and the ban entered the constitution as Article 72(3).

Which US state kept statewide prohibition the longest after federal repeal, until 1966?

Mississippi stayed legally dry until 1966, when the legislature passed local-option laws after a police raid on a Jackson Country Club ball embarrassed the state's bootleg-tolerant establishment.

An 1847 act banned beating carpets, hanging washing and what else in English town streets?

Flying kites: section 28 of the Town Police Clauses Act 1847 listed kite-flying, carpet-beating and making slides on ice among street nuisances punishable by fine; the Act also underpins how councils license taxis.

Which US state was the last to legalise tattooing, in November 2006?

Oklahoma had banned tattoo parlours since 1963 and was the last state to lift its ban, in November 2006; South Carolina had legalised the trade in 2004 and New York City ran its own ban from 1961 to 1997.

Voting in Australian federal elections has been compulsory, with fines, since which year?

1924: the Commonwealth Electoral Act amendment made federal voting compulsory, and turnout leapt from about 59% at the 1922 election to over 91% in 1925; Queensland had led the way for state elections in 1915.

Which English king's 1363 law ordered men to practise archery on Sundays instead of playing football?

Edward III's 1363 proclamation ordered able-bodied men to practise with the bow on Sundays and holidays and banned 'useless' pastimes such as football, handball and cockfighting, to keep England supplied with archers for the French wars.

From 1666, English law required the dead to be buried in shrouds made only of what?

Wool: the Burial in Woollen Acts of 1666 and 1678 propped up the wool trade by requiring shrouds of sheep's wool, with relatives swearing an affidavit or paying £5; plague victims were exempt, and the rule was repealed in 1814.

A 1571 English law made people above what age wear a woollen cap on Sundays?

Elizabeth I's Caps Act propped up the wool trade; ladies, nobles and gentlemen of means were exempt.

A tax charged in England from 1696 until 1851 was based on how many of what a house had?

Windows: the 1696 tax charged houses by their number of windows, so owners bricked some up to cut the bill; it was repealed in 1851, and the phrase 'daylight robbery' is often, and dubiously, traced to it.

Paramus, a Bergen County borough with five big malls, bans most retail on which day?

Sunday: Bergen County's blue laws, repeatedly upheld by county referendums, close nearly all non-food retail on Sundays and Paramus adds its own stricter ordinance; even so its malls make it one of America's top retail ZIP codes.

For decades after a 1992 ruling, South Korean law let only which group give tattoos?

Licensed doctors: a 1992 Supreme Court ruling classed tattooing as a medical procedure, so only doctors could legally perform it and most of the country's tattoo artists worked underground for three decades.

Under Canada's Currency Act, pennies are legal tender only up to what total per payment?

25 cents: section 8 of Canada's Currency Act caps coin payments by denomination, so a creditor may refuse more than 25 cents in pennies, $5 in nickels or $25 in loonies; the penny itself was withdrawn in 2013.

Which baby name does New Zealand reject more than any other as resembling a title?

Justice tops New Zealand's list of declined names year after year, since the registration law bars names resembling a rank or title; 'Lucifer' and '4Real' were also refused.

Which European country decriminalised personal possession of all drugs in July 2001?

Portugal's drug strategy took effect in July 2001 with the aim of cutting HIV infections from injecting; users face dissuasion commissions, not judges.

Until June 2018, which was the only country where women were barred by law from driving?

Saudi Arabia lifted the ban in June 2018, nearly three decades after dozens of women were arrested for a driving protest in Riyadh in 1990.

Women in the Swiss canton of Appenzell Innerrhoden got the local vote only in what year?

1990: Appenzell Innerrhoden's men voted down women's suffrage again in April 1990, so the Federal Supreme Court imposed it that November; Switzerland had granted women the national vote in 1971.

Britain's Profane Oaths Act 1745 set fines for swearing that varied according to what?

Social rank: the Act charged a day labourer, soldier or sailor one shilling per oath, anyone else below a gentleman two shillings, and a gentleman or above five shillings; it was repealed in 1967.

Which country introduced a tax on saturated fat in 2011, then scrapped it 15 months later?

Denmark's fat tax of October 2011 added 16 kroner per kilogram of saturated fat to foods over 2.3%, hitting butter, cheese and pizza; it mostly sent shoppers across the German border and was scrapped in January 2013.

Until 2018, pubs in the Republic of Ireland could not sell alcohol on which day?

Good Friday: the 1927 Intoxicating Liquor Act closed pubs on Good Friday, which is not even a public holiday in Ireland; the 2018 amendment let them open, leaving Christmas Day as the only dry day.

Unmarked mute swans swimming in open water in Britain legally belong to whom?

Every July the Crown's swan uppers row up the Thames with the Vintners' and Dyers' companies to count and mark the birds.

In 2018 Utah became the first US state to lower its drink-driving limit to what level?

0.05%: Utah's limit fell from 0.08% on 30 December 2018, the lowest in the United States; Utah had also been among the first states to adopt 0.08%, in 1983, when 0.10% was the national norm.

In 1994 American teenager Michael Fay was sentenced to six cane strokes for what offence?

Vandalism: Fay pleaded guilty to spray-painting cars and keeping stolen road signs in Singapore; the case briefly strained US-Singapore relations, and his six strokes were cut to four after President Clinton's appeal.