12 interesting facts about laws
- In Virginia, the Code of 1930 has a statute which prohibits corrupt practices or bribery by any person other than political candidates.
- Women were banned by royal decree from using hotel swimming pools in Jidda, Saudi Arabia, in 1979.
- Laws can vary from place to place. For instance, the drinking age in the United States is 21, whereas in Ontario, Canada, nineteen year-olds can drink legally.
- In most American states, a wedding ring is exempt by law from inclusion among the assets in a bankruptcy estate. This means that a wedding ring cannot be seized by creditors, no matter how much the bankrupt person owes.
- The law is always changing: Some old laws are found to be unnecessary or unfair. Until 1967, it was illegal in some parts of the United States to marry someone of a different race.
- The oldest recorded death sentence is contained in the Amherst papyri, dating to 1500 B.C., which listed Egyptian state trials. A teenaged male, convicted of “magic”, was sentenced to kill himself by either poison or stabbing.
- Prison and jail don't always mean the same thing. People in prison have been tried in a court and convicted of a crime. People in jail may be waiting for their trial.
- According to law, no store is allowed to sell a toothbrush on the Sabbath in Providence, Rhode Island. Yet these same stores are allowed to sell toothpaste and mouthwash on Sundays.
- A felony is a more serious crime than a misdemeanor. Shoplifting, for instance, is usually a misdemeanor, but can be a felony depending on what was stolen and whether or not the shoplifter already has a criminal record.
- In 1666, a law was passed in England requiring all corpses to be buried in a wool shroud, thereby extorting support for Britain’s flagging wool industry, especially since the Black Death was devastating England at the time. The act was finally repealed 148 years later, in 1814.
- In Washington State, you can’t carry a concealed weapon that is over 6 feet in length.
- For hundreds of years, the Chinese zealously guarded the secret of sericulture; imperial law decreed death by torture to those who disclosed how to make silk.
