http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/16/world/europe/britain-pares-down-silly-laws-...


LONDON — It is not a great idea to carry a plank of wood down a busy sidewalk. Nor should you ride a horse while drunk, or handle a salmon under suspicious circumstances.

But should such antics be illegal? Still?

Thanks to centuries of legislating by Parliament, which bans the wearing of suits of armor in its chambers, Britain has accumulated many laws that nowadays seem irrelevant, and often absurd.

So voluminous and eccentric is Britain’s collective body of 44,000 pieces of primary legislation that it has a small team of officials whose sole task is to prune it.

Their work is not just a constitutional curiosity, but a bulwark against hundreds of years of lawmaking running out of control.

Over the centuries, rules have piled up to penalize those who fire a cannon within 300 yards of a dwelling and those who beat a carpet in the street — unless the item can be classified as a doormat and it is beaten before 8 a.m.

“To have a legal situation where there is so much information that you cannot sit down and comprehend it, does seem to me a serious problem,” said Andrew Lewis, professor emeritus of comparative legal history at University College London. “I think it matters dreadfully that no one can get a handle on the whole of it.”

Yet, as Professor Lewis also noted, many old laws have survived because crime and bad behavior have, too.

“One reason is that human nature doesn’t change much,” Professor Lewis said, “though of course the institutions which we develop to protect, organize, and govern ourselves do change, and then it becomes necessary to adjust the existing law to practice.”

Sifting out the obsolete legislation is the work of two lawyers and a researcher at Britain’s Law Commission, which is responsible for reviewing laws and recommending changes. Thanks to them, more than 200 measures are scheduled to be repealed next year, including some — but not all — of a law dating to 1267.

Among those set to go are many church laws (including one from a 1536 act authorizing the extension of a London graveyard), and a variety of acts related to British colonial rule in India. These include the India Steam Ship Company Act of 1838, which has been in force for 177 years, although there is no evidence that the shipping firm established through the act ever started work.

How Well Do You Know British Law?
Answer multiple choice questions as you read this article.

According to British law still on the books, it is illegal to...

• Place a postage stamp depicting the queen upside down on a letter
• Use obscene language in a library
• Drink tea after 10 p.m. or before 7 a.m.
• Move a dead body across county lines without a coffin

So extensive is the statute book that the Law Commission has published a guide debunking some more far-fetched urban myths about it. The commission has found no evidence, for example, of any law stating that in the city of Liverpool, it is illegal for a woman to be topless in public except while working as a clerk in a tropical fish store.

Nor is it true that a man may urinate in public, providing he does so against the rear-passenger-side wheel of his vehicle, with his right hand placed upon it.

Some of the actual laws, however antiquated they may seem, have proved surprisingly durable. Though some elements of the 1267 Statute of Marlborough are set to be repealed next year, others, including one relating to the seizure of goods to satisfy debts, will remain. This piece of legislation predates the incorporation into law of Magna Carta (which was signed in 1215 but which was not enrolled on the statute book until 1297).

Another medieval act, Quia Emptores, which was passed in 1290, also established important principles for English property law.

The British Crown has legal ownership of...

• All swans throughout the realm
• Football (soccer) pitches and cricket grounds anywhere in Britain
• Any whale found on British shores
• Non-photographic depictions of a royal palace or residence

Before any repeal is proposed to Parliament, the law is thoroughly researched and discussed, said Elaine Lorimer, chief executive of the Law Commission. “Just the age of the legislation isn’t a determining factor,” she said. “The research has got to be done to make sure that actually this is no longer required.”

She cites an obscure piece of legislation from 1916, relating to employment of former military personnel in agriculture, which was once earmarked for the ax. “We did our research and we established that the act allowed for a trust to be provided for small holdings for ex-servicemen, and that this trust still existed,” Ms. Lorimer said.

The team dedicated to reviewing old law approaches its work in a thematic, rather than chronological, way — hence the recent focus on legislation relating to the church and India. The lawyers and researcher sometimes retreat to a dusty Justice Ministry basement or to law libraries to find relevant texts, some of which do not make easy reading. The 1351 Treason Act, for example, was written in Norman French.

David Connolly, a senior lawyer with the commission, said he was struck by how much old law is still used.

Which of these is an actual British statute?

• The Ale, Lager and Stout Purity Act of 1669
• Married Women's Property Act of 1882
• 1969 Treaty of Abbey Road
• Order Protecting the Rights of Scottsmen and Irishmen

“You think that those sorts of things are right for repeal,” he said, “and then you get in touch with the police, and the police say, ‘Well you know, on the whole, we’d rather you didn’t repeal that because we sometimes use it.’ ”

The Offenses Against the Person Act of 1861 is still widely used to prosecute violent crimes, he said, adding that, if just a part of the legislation is still useful, it is sometimes simpler to keep all of it on the statute book, rather than to repeal specific clauses.

“Put what looks like silly, pointless piece of law into its historical context and you realize that they had slightly different interest or they had the same sort of interests but were pursuing them in a different way,” Mr. Connolly said.

According to Professor Lewis, the legislative pileup is explained partly by the fact that Britain, unlike many countries, has chosen not to codify its laws, leading to an accumulation of piecemeal legislation. The big spike in British lawmaking came in the 19th and 20th centuries, he said. And Britain’s history of court judgments has established lengthy legal precedents that are often more important than the legislation itself.

In recent years, about 25 bills typically become law, more during the early, and most energetic, phase of a new government.

“In the eyes of the public, the major rationale of Parliament appears to be to pass legislation,” Professor Lewis said.

That means that those trying to slim the statute book are “playing catch-up all the time,” said Ms. Lorimer, the law commission’s chief.

“It’s just a job that never ends,” Mr. Connolly said. “There isn’t a moment when you put your pen down or turn your computer off and say, ‘Right, that’s it.’ ”

CORRECT ANSWERS:
According to British law still on the books, it is illegal to...
• Use obscene language in a library - The Libraries Offences Act of 1898 also used to forbid gambling in libraries and reading rooms, until that provision was repealed by the Gambling Act of 2005.

The British Crown has legal ownership of...
• Any whale found on British shores - According to a law adopted in 1322, the king or queen has the prerogative to claim "Whales and great sturgeons taken in the Sea or elsewhere within the Realm."
• The Crown has held the right to ownership over wild, unmarked mute swans in open waters since the 12th century, but the queen only exercises her right over parts of the River Thames and its tributaries.

Which of these is an actual British statute?
• Married Women's Property Act of 1882 - This law, part of which is up for repeal, consolidates elements from previous laws, including the Married Women's Policies of Assurances Act of 1880 and the Married Women's Property Act of 1870. Much of the 1882 law remains in force and sets out the rights, protections and liabilities of women to own property independently and with their husbands.
• 1969 Treaty of Abbey Road
• Order Protecting the Rights of Scottsmen and Irishmen