Weird World of the law

[Walsingham]

Hairdessers face 20k fine for serving free mulled wine.

 

Arsonist confesses to police. Is given a drink.

 

I have no problem with the latter, and problems with the former.

[Rosbjerg]

I have no problem with the first link either - there's a very real reason behind that law, prohibiting everyone from serving alcohol.

 

The second one seems odd, but the police did ask a doctor for advice, and followed it.. so I would say the blame rests with the doctor if it's considered wrong.

[Walsingham]

I don't have a problem with serving drinks when it's low key, and the drinks are low-alcohol. I think it's a great idea to be festive and hand out mulled wine. Particularly when police and court time could be better used.

 

In general I think there's a disturbing mealie mouthed sentiment at times. Case in point: a display of courage and ingenuity meets with po-faced disapproval.

[Volourn]

The first is obviously an abuse of power. Sure, it holds up the letter of the law but no the spirit. DISGUSTING!

 

That law was obviously meant to stop people from just randomly opening up a bar, and selling alochol without having a certain amount of responsibility. Some salon giving a single rink to customers in celebration of Christmas (or any holiday or whatever) is NOT a threat to society which is the *only* thing the law should be concerned with.

 

Espicially since as pointed you will often get a lesser sentence for much worse offenses. 6 months, and 20k? STFU!

[Rosbjerg]

with a quick search on google I found this webpage. Quite funny actually.

[Volourn]

Yeah, no doubt, that there's lots of dumb laws on the books pretty much everywhere thata re just waiting to be either abused in modern times then overturned when they become publically known.

[Enoch]

The method that the Anglo-American legal system has to deal with stuff like this is simple: prosecutorial discretion. Cops and district attorneys (or whatever they call the prosecuting officials in your particular jurisdiction) are under no requirement to seek the maximum possible punishment for every little violation of the law. When they do go too far and enforce a stupid law, it often raises the public ire enough to get the law changed.

 

 

As to weird legal stories, my favorites are all cases that I read in the first year of law school. Lots of legal textbooks rely on the founding cases that established a particular legal principle, and most of these cases are from the 18th century or earlier (in some cases, way earlier). Thus, they tend to be full of lovely antiquated terms (mobs throwing "brickbats" and "lighted squibs," "a rick of hay" that catches fire), people doing hilariously stupid things (home-defense deathtraps, criminal law cases beginning with the phrase "[Defendant's name] stumbled out of a bar"), interesting bits of latin (e.g., Moliter manus imposuit), and humorously unlikely factual situations (a founding case for a major principle of contract law revolves around two ships transporting goods from Bombay to Liverpool, both named "Peerless"). There is a lot that sucks about law school-- particularly the first year-- but the centuries-old caselaw you end up reading can be entertaining.

Edited December 2, 2008 by Enoch

[Amentep]

I dunno, the wine one seems to be a case of a proper interpretation of the law in question. I'm sure if people don't like it they could petition the government to amend the law in some way (or, alternatively, I suppose the hair salons could apply for a license to sell alcohol or whatever).

 

The arsonist I'm with Rosbjerg, they asked a medical professional and followed the medical advice given.

 

The bit with the hat seems a bit of overkill not sure how it rates as a health risk unless the idea was more to prevent others risky behavior trying to emulate or top the prank.

[Calax]

One of the interesting things that me and my Divisionmates found in our books during my short time with the navy was that you can only have sex with your wife (provided she is over 14 I think) and only in the missionary position. They go out of their way to make sure a certain part of your body isn't used that way. (I'm trying not to go over the line here, figure it out)

 

Also those lawguru laws are certainly an interesting read... An anticrime law that requires 24 hour notice before a crime is perpetrated? Does that mean I can go to that state and give notice to someone a day before then burgle them with no repercussions?

[Meshugger]

A sad thing is happening at the moment in Finland: "Snus" is forbidden under some bizarre EU-rule to be sold in Finland (In Sweden, it is perfectly ok). Evidently, an underground blackmarket of "snus"-distributors emerged during the last years, with customers including, regular joes, judges, cops and alike.

 

They actually "busted" a snus-ring and senteced the the guilty party to prison 2 and a half years in prison. In order to give some perspective on this matter, i will give some examples.

 

- 48% of all convicted rape charges are convicted with a conditional release. Meaning, a fine and a slap on the wrist.

- The rest of the rape charges are usually sentenced to around 18 months.

- They have to pay 1 000 000 euro each in taxes on illegal substances. Note, if this would have been Crackcocaine, Marijuana or Heroin, there wouldn't have been any taxes, since they are of course, illegal substances.

 

Moral of the story, you may rape and import drugs, but heaven forbid if you import substances that are legal in Sweden. Not only we will put you on maximum time in prison, we will also tax the living soul out of you.

 

Words can't describe my rage.

Edited December 3, 2008 by Meshugger

[Walsingham]

Words can't describe my rage.

 

How about some sort of dance?

[Meshugger]

Words can't describe my rage.

 

How about some sort of dance?

 

 

Starting at 0:35, go!