Dumb Laws

Dumb laws, also weird, strange, or unnecessary laws, are laws that are perceived to be useless, no longer applicable (in regards to current culture or modern law), or humorous. There are relatively few real "dumb laws" on the books, but large amount of hoax or exaggerated dumb laws are circulated on the internet and in the print media. Common characteristics of these laws are prohibitions against seemingly benign behaviors (for example it is claimed that in California "bathhouses are against the law" ) or prohibitions against acts that one is realistically unlikely to carry out (such as an Arizona law prohibiting hunting camels, while camels are not native to North America .). In reality, California only bans bathhouses that encourage sex, in order to prevent the spread of AIDS and the Arizona law was designed to deal with aftereffects of a failed army experiment to use camels as a military animal.

Several books have been written and numerous websites exist on the internet purporting to list "dumb laws" in various jurisdictions (see "External links" section). The "dumb laws" are also often circulated via e-mail chain letters. However, two books, You May Not Tie an Alligator to a Fire Hydrant: 101 Real Dumb Laws and The Book of Strange Laws and Curious Legal Oddities, appear to have been vetted for accuracy.

There are two main reasons that references to false or inaccurate laws may persist:

1) exaggeration or misinterpretation of real provisions of law, and 2) common law cases.

(1) Some of the purported "dumb laws" have no basis in reality, or are an exaggeration of real laws. For example a reasonable law about the preservation of rare cactus species may be presented as humorous statement that "There is a possible 25 years in prison for cutting down a cactus.". The minor phenomenon's popularity is attested to by existing websites that generate the "dumb laws" at random.

(2) Reports about 'dumb' laws often originate from case rulings issued in common law countries. The reason is that the court decision on a particular case may, for example, state that a dog-owner has to pay damages to his neighbours because his dog keeps barking at night and repeatedly disrupts their sleep. When taken out of the context, the 'dumb law' appears: "Dogs may not bark after 6 PM". Since in common law systems decisions of certain courts become precedents, such ruling is formally also included in the legal system and is considered a source of law.

Local communities often express concern when their laws get cited on one of the lists on the internet, and see it as a cause to change the law.