Thursday 21 June 2007

I Fought the Law

Anyone with an interest in trivia will know that there are lots of obscure and unusual laws in the world, which have remained on statutes long after they were relevant, or which defy the rational mind as to why they ever entered the legislation in the first place: it is illegal to walk with only one shoe on in Budapest after midnight; all parrot owners in Ulan Bator must wear purple badges on their left lapel. Of course, I have made these ones up, but many 'real' laws are just as esoteric, and all countries have them.

All except one that is. In the 1990s, Uruguay became aware of the number of odd and conflicting local laws which had built up over time in its regional legal systems, many of them unusual to say the least. To avoid any unwanted international attention on their bizarre laws, the government passed an act (Ley Orgánica sobre la abolición de los reglamentos anticuados, obsoletos y desnecesarios) which now means that the strangest law in Uruguay is probably the law banning strange laws!
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