Weird Laws Around the World: Which Ones Are Actually Real?

Originally published 2016-02-27.

Lists of "weird laws from around the world" are some of the most shared pages on the internet, and this one, first published here in 2016, gathered around a hundred of them. When you check them one by one, a pattern appears. A minority are genuine rules still on the books, such as the English offence of handling salmon in suspicious circumstances or Singapore's ban on selling chewing gum. Others were real but have since been repealed or struck down by courts. Many more are garbled versions of sensible rules, and a large group has no traceable source at all.

Below we sort the original claims into those groups and explain, for each one, what is actually known. We have removed exact duplicates (the Australian light bulb and the Italian dog-walking claims each appeared twice) and grouped a handful of crude bedroom-related claims together, since none of them could be traced to a real law. Some entries on the original list were not funny at all, such as rules on child marriage or HIV testing; those get a section of their own.

Nothing here is legal advice. Laws change, and if a rule matters to you, check the current official text for that country or city.

How to tell a real odd law from a myth

Before the list, a quick toolkit. A genuine law almost always has a name or number, such as an act, a section, a municipal code or a court ruling, and a place and date. Viral lists rarely give any of these. Be suspicious when a claim:

• names a whole country or US state but no statute;
• includes oddly precise details, such as "after 6pm on a Thursday", without a source;
• describes a punishment that would be impossible to enforce;
• appears word for word on dozens of sites that all cite each other.

Many American entries trace back to 1990s joke books and early "dumb laws" websites, which collected hearsay and rarely checked statute books. Some real laws also sound strange only because the context is missing: a rule written to stop poaching or plant disease can look absurd when it is reduced to one line.

Strange-sounding laws that are real

• Handling salmon in suspicious circumstances (England, Wales and Scotland). True. Section 32 of the Salmon Act 1986 makes it an offence to receive or deal with salmon and certain other fish when you believe, or reasonably should suspect, that they were taken illegally. It is essentially an anti-poaching rule, similar to the offence of handling stolen goods.
• Whales and sturgeon belong to the monarch (England). True. These "royal fish" have been the Crown's property since at least the 14th century. Today the Receiver of Wreck deals with them when they are caught or wash ashore, and they now belong to the King rather than the Queen.
• Polish potatoes (England). Partly true. A 2004 order did not ban them outright; it required people bringing potatoes they knew or suspected to be from Poland into England to notify plant-health inspectors. The aim was to stop the spread of a crop disease called ring rot.
• Being drunk in a pub, or in charge of a cow (Britain). True in substance. The Licensing Act 1872 makes it an offence to be drunk on licensed premises and to be drunk while in charge of a horse, cattle or a carriage. Under the Licensing Act 2003 it is also an offence to sell alcohol to someone who is already drunk.
• Carrying a plank along the pavement (London). Real in origin. A Victorian police law for the capital listed nuisances on footways, including carrying planks, ladders or other long items that could injure people. Such provisions are rarely, if ever, enforced today.
• Selling chewing gum (Singapore). Mostly true, with errors. Since 1992 it has been illegal to sell or import ordinary chewing gum, but chewing it is not a crime and travellers may bring small amounts for personal use. Since 2004, therapeutic and nicotine gum can be sold through pharmacists and dentists. Fines for spitting and littering are real, and repeat litterers can be given Corrective Work Orders to clean public places. The claim about a bib reading "I'm a litterer" is not supported.
• Walking around naked at home with the blinds open (Singapore). True. Singapore law treats nudity in a private place as an offence if the person can be seen by the public.
• Feeding pigeons (Venice). True. Venice banned feeding pigeons in St Mark's Square in 2008 and fines people who do so, to protect monuments and public health.
• Walking dogs three times a day (Turin, Italy). True, though the original list wrote "Tornio", which is a town in Finland. A 2005 animal-welfare by-law in Turin required owners to walk their dogs at least three times a day.
• Tibetan reincarnation needs state approval (China). True. A 2007 order from China's State Administration for Religious Affairs requires government approval for the recognition of reincarnated lamas. It is widely seen as a way to control who succeeds senior Tibetan Buddhist figures, including the Dalai Lama.
• Visiting elderly parents (China). True. An amended law on elderly rights that took effect in July 2013 says adult children should visit or keep in touch with their parents and care for their emotional needs. It is rarely enforced but has been cited in a few lawsuits.
• "Unjust vexation" (Philippines). True. Article 287 of the Revised Penal Code covers minor annoyances that do not fit other offences, and lawyers do criticise it for being vague.
• No divorce (Philippines and Vatican City). True as of our last check. They are the only two states without general divorce, though Muslim Filipinos can divorce under a separate code and annulment is possible. Divorce bills have been debated in the Philippine Congress for years.
• Proxy weddings for soldiers (Montana). True. Montana is the only US state that allows a "double proxy" wedding, where neither the bride nor the groom is present, for members of the military and residents.
• Cousin marriage after 65 (Utah). True. Utah allows first cousins to marry if both are 65 or older, or 55 or older if a court finds that neither can have children.
• Marriage notices in the newspaper (Greece). Broadly true. Greek civil marriage rules require the intended wedding to be announced publicly in advance, traditionally through a notice in a local newspaper, so that legal objections can be raised.
• Honking in New York City. True. City rules prohibit unnecessary horn use except to warn of danger, and fines can reach several hundred dollars, although enforcement is rare.
• Bear wrestling (Alabama). True. Alabama law makes it a crime to promote or take part in bear wrestling matches, and to train or drug a bear for them. The law was aimed at a cruel travelling sideshow.
• Buying sex (Sweden, Norway, Iceland). True. Since 1999 Sweden has criminalised paying for sex while not punishing the person who sells it. Norway and Iceland adopted similar laws in 2009, and several other countries have followed this "Nordic model".
• Cheating in public exams (Bangladesh). Broadly true. A 1980 Bangladeshi law on offences in public examinations allows prison terms for exam cheating, though in practice students are usually expelled rather than jailed.

Laws that were real but are gone or unenforceable

• Sodomy laws in US states. Out of date. When the US Supreme Court decided Lawrence v. Texas in June 2003, 14 states still had such laws. The ruling made all of them unenforceable, so this entry was already wrong when the list first appeared.
• Interracial marriage in Alabama in 2000. Misleading. The ban had been unenforceable since Loving v. Virginia in 1967. The old wording stayed in the state constitution until voters removed it in November 2000, by roughly 59% to 41%.
• Atheists barred from office in seven states. The text is real but void. Seven state constitutions still contain clauses requiring officials to believe in God, but the Supreme Court ruled in Torcaso v. Watkins (1961) that such religious tests cannot be enforced.
• Firing someone for being gay (29 states). No longer true. In Bostock v. Clayton County (June 2020) the Supreme Court ruled that federal law against sex discrimination in employment protects gay and transgender workers nationwide.
• Saudi women driving and voting. Out of date. Saudi women voted and stood as candidates for the first time in municipal elections in December 2015, and the driving ban ended in June 2018.
• Comic books showing crime (Canada). Real, then repealed. Canada's Criminal Code had a "crime comics" offence dating from 1949. It was rarely used and was removed in a 2018 clean-up of outdated laws.
• Longbow practice for men (England). Gone. Medieval and Tudor laws did require men to practise archery, but the last of these was repealed in 1960.
• Bigfoot protection. Real, but in the wrong country. There is no such law in British Columbia. Skamania County in Washington State passed an ordinance in 1969 making it an offence to kill a Sasquatch, partly as a tourism joke and partly to stop people with rifles roaming the woods.
• Old emails without a warrant (USA). Partly true. The Stored Communications Act of 1986 does allow authorities to obtain emails older than 180 days without a warrant. Since a 2010 appeals court ruling, however, major email providers generally insist on a warrant anyway.

Garbled versions of sensible rules

• Only electricians may change a light bulb (Victoria, Australia). False as stated. Electrical safety rules in Australia require a licensed electrician for wiring work, but anyone can change a bulb. The "10 dollar fine" is invented.
• No vacuuming at night (Melbourne). Exaggerated. Victoria has residential noise rules that set quiet hours for noisy equipment, such as power tools and lawnmowers. It is a general noise rule, not a special ban on cleaning.
• No flushing after 10pm (Switzerland). Myth. There is no national law. Some apartment buildings have house rules on quiet hours, which can mention baths or showers, but that is a tenancy agreement, not criminal law.
• One song in five must be Canadian (Canada). Wrong figure. Canada's broadcasting regulator requires commercial radio stations to give at least 35% of popular music to Canadian content, judged by a points system that looks at the composer, performer, recording location and lyricist, not just the singer.
• Driving a dirty car (Chelyabinsk, Russia). Distorted. Russian traffic rules allow fines for number plates that are too dirty to read. A dusty car in itself is not an offence.
• "It is illegal to be fat" (Japan). False. A 2008 health law, nicknamed the "metabo law", requires waist measurements during annual check-ups for people aged 40 to 74, and puts targets on employers and local health programmes. Individuals are not fined for their size.
• Visitors to North Korea cannot use local currency. Largely true at various times. Foreign visitors have usually been expected to pay in foreign currency in designated shops and hotels, but the rules have shifted and tourism has been heavily restricted since 2020.
• Threatening someone with an unloaded gun (Texas). Backwards. Threatening a person with any gun, loaded or not, can be prosecuted in Texas as aggravated assault.
• Stepping on money (Thailand). Real in spirit. Thai banknotes carry the king's portrait, and disrespecting royal images can bring charges under the lèse-majesté law. There is no specific "money stepping" statute, but visitors are wise to avoid it.
• Kissing in a moving car (Eboli, Italy). Unconfirmed. Italian media reported a local mayoral order on public behaviour in Eboli in the early 2000s, but we found no reliable text of a rule specifically about kissing in cars.
• Spitting ban (Coulaines, France). Plausible. The town reportedly issued a local order against spitting in 2009, during the H1N1 swine flu outbreak. Local public-health orders like this are common, but we could not see the original decree.
• Winnie the Pooh banned from playgrounds (Tuszyn, Poland). Exaggerated. In 2014 local councillors debated naming a playground after Pooh, and one reportedly objected that the bear was not wearing trousers. The name was dropped, but no ban on the character was passed.
• Mock marriage proposals (South Carolina). Unclear. Old South Carolina laws dealt with seduction under a false promise of marriage, which is likely the origin of this claim, but we could not confirm the current wording.
• Marriages of "idiots or lunatics" (Rhode Island). Real in old wording. Many US states once used such terms in laws about mental capacity to marry. Modern rules focus on whether a person can give valid consent.
• Dying in the Houses of Parliament (UK). Myth. Parliament itself has said there is no such law, and people have died in the Palace of Westminster.
• Marrying a dead person (France). The opposite is true. Article 171 of the French Civil Code allows posthumous marriage with approval from the President of the Republic, provided the couple had clearly planned to marry. The current law dates from 1959, after the Malpasset dam disaster near Fréjus.

Claims with no evidence behind them

For the following entries we could find no statute, court record or reliable news report. Most come from joke books and copy-pasted websites. Some may have started as real but trivial local rules; others look invented.

• Smiling at all times (Milan). No evidence of any such ordinance, old or new.
• A donkey asleep in a bathtub after 7pm (Oklahoma). A classic of the "dumb laws" genre, with no source.
• Making faces at dogs (Oklahoma). No source.
• Building furniture in the nude (Devon, Texas). No source, and no clear town of that name in Texas.
• Pulling a dollar bill away on a string (Pennsylvania). No source.
• Leaving the house without underwear (Thailand). A widely repeated myth; Thai law has public indecency rules but nothing on underwear.
• Forgetting your wife's birthday (Samoa). A popular joke with no legal basis.
• Waiters telling customers they are actors (Los Angeles). Satire, not law.
• Chaining an alligator to a fire hydrant (Michigan). No source.
• Ice cream cones in back pockets (Kentucky). Often linked to old rules on horse theft, but no statute has been found.
• Giving a pet a lit cigar (Illinois). No source.
• Taking a lion to the cinema (Baltimore). No source.
• Giving police 24 hours' notice of a crime (Texas). Pure invention.
• Naming a pig Napoleon (France). One of the most repeated myths; no such law exists.
• Selling toothpaste and a toothbrush on Sunday (Providence). May echo old Sunday trading laws, but no text has been found.
• Pilots over 80 (Turkey). No specific law found. International aviation rules generally stop pilots flying commercial passenger flights after 65 anyway.
• Getting a fish drunk (Ohio). No source as stated.
• Detonating a nuclear device (Chico, California). Often quoted with a $500 fine; we could not confirm the current municipal text.
• Fishing from a giraffe's neck (Chicago). No source.
• Singing loudly after sunset (Honolulu). No source; ordinary noise rules apply.
• Using the toilet in any house (Scotland). A well-known myth with no legal basis.
• Confetti and silly string (Mobile, Alabama). Unconfirmed.
• Moustached men kissing in public (Iowa). No source.
• Husbands responsible for wives' actions (Utah), wives needing permission for false teeth (Vermont), and a limit on remarrying the same man (Kentucky). No sources found for any of them.
• A husband may beat his wife once a month (Arkansas). False. Domestic violence is a crime in Arkansas, as in every US state.
• Royal pets and commoners' pets (Britain). No source.
• An uncaged bear in the car (Missouri), skydiving widows (Florida) and public flatulence after 6pm on a Thursday (Florida). No sources.
• Bedroom laws. The original list included several claims about what couples may or may not do in bed in Massachusetts, North Carolina, Oregon, Virginia, Arizona, Ohio and Illinois. None could be traced to a real statute, and any old morality laws on private consensual conduct between adults were made unenforceable by Lawrence v. Texas.
• Wives killing cheating husbands "with bare hands" (Hong Kong). False. Killing a spouse is murder or manslaughter in Hong Kong.
• Equal tango and other music in nightclubs (Argentina). Unconfirmed; we found no national law.
• Cross-dressing, as long as dresses are not strapless (Australia). The "strapless" detail is invented. Old vagrancy-style laws in some Australian states were once used against cross-dressing men, but they have long been repealed.

Serious laws that do not belong on a joke list

Some entries in the original list describe real harm and deserve to be treated seriously:

• Rape as a war crime. UN Security Council Resolution 1820, adopted in June 2008, stated that rape and other sexual violence can constitute war crimes, crimes against humanity or acts of genocide. It built on earlier rulings by the international tribunals for Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia in the 1990s, so it was a milestone rather than the first recognition.
• Sex outside marriage (United Arab Emirates). Consensual sex outside marriage was long a crime in the UAE, and there were reported cases of women who reported rape later facing charges themselves. Reforms in 2020 and 2021 relaxed these laws, but foreign visitors are still advised to check current rules.
• Child marriage (Saudi Arabia). In 2008 a Saudi judge refused to annul the marriage of an eight-year-old girl to a 58-year-old man, a case that drew international outrage; a divorce was reportedly agreed the following year. Saudi Arabia has since required court approval for marriages involving under-18s, though campaigners say a fixed minimum age is still needed.
• HIV testing (Greece). In 2012 Greek authorities used a health regulation to detain and test women suspected of sex work and published the names and photos of those found HIV-positive. The measure was condemned by health and human rights groups and later revoked; it was briefly reinstated in 2013 and finally abolished in 2015.
• Debt and wives (India). We found no such law. Bonded labour of any kind has been illegal in India since 1976.

Why fake laws spread so easily

Weird-law lists are perfect viral content: short, surprising and impossible to check quickly. Once a claim appears on one popular site, others copy it, and the sheer number of copies makes it look confirmed. Translations add new errors, which is how a dog rule in Turin became one in "Tornio", and how a Bigfoot ordinance in Washington State moved to Canada.

The real lesson is more useful than any single oddity. Laws are written for a reason, even when the reason has been forgotten. If a rule sounds absurd, look for the official text and its date. More often than not, you will find either a sensible purpose behind it or no law at all.

Sources: Salmon Act 1986, section 32 (legislation.gov.uk); Polish Potatoes (Notification) (England) Order 2004 (legislation.gov.uk); Wikipedia: Royal fish; Wikipedia: Chewing gum sales ban in Singapore; Wikipedia: Posthumous marriage; Wikipedia: Lawrence v. Texas.