Strange and Weird English Laws

Charles Dickens said: "The law is an ass, an idiot."

England has so many ancient and very strange laws, but in their day, they made absolute sense. Today, those laws of old England may still exist, some are gradually being repealed by the Law Commission.

The Law Commission was formed in 1965 to keep the law under review and to recommend reform where it is needed, it responsible for sifting through the aged and irrelevant laws of England and bring them up-to-date or repeal them, that is to remove them as laws.

Imagine a team of law reformers whose job it is at the Law Commission to wade through them ancient dusty old statute books, looking for strange English laws and then add them to a Repeal Bill. They haven't the authority to cross them out and have to be passed by Parliament every few years.

As an example; a law introduced in 1307 ruled that the head of any dead whale found on the British coast becomes the property of the king and the tail belongs to the queen - should she need the bones for her corset. To provide a snapshot in history of 1307, Edward I died on 7th July 1307 on the way to Scotland to conquer Robert the Bruce. The old King's dying request was that his son should carry his bones with him in battle until Robert was defeated.

By 1800 in England some two hundred crimes were punishable by death. The list included forgery, horse-stealing, sheep-stealing, picking pockets, stealing five shillings (25p/75 cents) from a shop, damaging Westminster Bridge, and impersonating a Chelsea Pensioner not to mention treason, murder, and attempted murder.

Throughout the whole of England it is still illegal to eat mince pies on the 25th of December.

In English law under the UK's Tax Avoidance Schemes Regulations 2006, it is illegal not to tell the taxman anything you don't want him to know, however you don't have to tell him anything you don't mind him knowing.

It is an act of treason to place a postage stamp bearing the British monarch upside down.