Absurd Laws of Old

 Thanks again to the Horrible Histories collection. Today's Year 9 Social Studies lesson was on the Victorian Justice system. There was a quiz to guess which crimes children as young as 11 could be shipped to the colonies for (stealing as little as a loaf of bread resulted in a sentence of 10 years in Australia for a 13 year old).

There was also a list of True-or-False offences for which a person could be fined. The students shocked to discover that you could be fines for shaking out your carpet in the street after 9am.

The offences with the fines were not always the ones expected.

Sample:

Which one of these offences would result in a fine in the 19th Century in Britain?
a) being truant from school
b) making a snowball in the street
c) eating a pork pie after 9 in the evening

It was pretty funny. Some of the students then started talking about Absurd laws that still existed today in various countries. I'm not sure if they were all true, but some were pretty weird.

I think I want to find a book about weird laws that have existed or still exist in the world today. Anyone know any?