My buddy and I were discussing the allowed blood alcohol content for driving (purely hypothetically) and how it varies across countries and then we stumbled upon the question in the title. Would be curious to hear if you guys know any good examples.

  • Manucode@feddit.de
    49·
    8 个月前

    You can’t be punished for breaking out of prison. If caught, you will have to finish your sentence though, and if you were eligible for early release before your escape, you surely won’t be any longer. Furthermore, you can still be punished for crimes committed during your escape, like assaulting guards, or bribing them, or damaging property like doors or windows.

    • GregorGizeh@lemmy.zip
      38·
      8 个月前

      You forgot the unusually humane reasoning:

      The law recognizes that the desire to be free is inherent to any human being, and an escape attempt can’t be punished as such.

      Everything’s else you said applies however. If the escapee does any kind of damage to people or things in the process they can be charged for those. Just not for trying to break out.

    • hades@lemm.ee
      5·
      8 个月前

      The same is true about escaping from the police car if they try to stop you. You’ll be charged for dangerous driving, but not for the pursuit itself.

  • KISSmyOS@feddit.de
    48·
    8 个月前

    It’s legal to trespass on other people’s property (outdoors, but even if it’s fenced in), while you’re in pursuit of a migrating swarm of bees you own.
    It’s generally legal for everyone to enter any privately-owned woodland, and generally illegal to deny access to it or build a fence around it. The land owner is responsible for the safety of the paths. There are exceptions, like protected new growth, or especially protected nature reserves, but those are very few. In Germany, it’s completely normal to be able to roam anywhere in nature, which in some other countries just isn’t possible at all.

    • sznowicki@lemmy.world
      17·
      8 个月前

      This is more European thing. At least it’s same or similar in Poland and Scandinavia. In Poland you can own a forest but you’re not allowed to fence it nor deny entry and mushroom picking. Also in Poland it’s not even that easy to cut a tree. Even in your own backyard. Unless it’s a fruit tree.

      • FluffyPotato@lemm.ee
        9·
        8 个月前

        Yea, exactly the same in Estonia, including that it’s hard to cut down a tree. Found that out after yoinking a Yule tree from my own forest every year until a forestry inspector came knocking. Thankfully they didn’t know I had been doing that for like 30 years and let me off with a warning.

          • FluffyPotato@lemm.ee
            1·
            8 个月前

            Just some paperwork I can just submit online for small trees yea. You need to be a licenced woodcutter for large trees though.

            Pretty much everyone gets their firewood from companies that sell it though. Like you buy a year or two’s worth during summer and stack it somewhere accessible. Never heard anyone making their own if firewood is their main source of heat.

              • FluffyPotato@lemm.ee
                1·
                8 个月前

                If you want to do maintenance that’s allowed but if you are cutting down a tree for other purposes you need permission (And be a certified logger for large trees). Our main forestry service is government owned so firewood is pretty cheap, cheaper than owning the equipment to make your own definitely. If you wanna use your forest you can rent it out for example to some logging firm if your goal is to make money. I’m just happy to chill in my forest though.

      • noobnarski@feddit.de
        3·
        8 个月前

        In scandinavia its even more open than in Germany, as you are allowed to camp anywhere in nature as long as you keep 200m or so distance from any house (or something like that, if you go there, check it beforehand)

    • Feathercrown@lemmy.worldEnglish
      5·
      8 个月前

      In the US, a few states have laws like this, for example in New Hampshire you can travel through privately owned wilderness. You are allowed to ban hunting or other activities on your land, though.

      • ebikefolder@feddit.de
        2·
        8 个月前

        Hunting right is tied to the land ownership in Germany. If you own land open to the public, you have to (yes, you have to!) hunt yourself or lease this right (and obligation) to someone else.

  • nexusband@lemmy.world
    441·
    8 个月前

    Probably not exactly what you are looking for, but these are my personal go to examples for hilarious laws in good ol’ Schermany…

    • Per law, it’s forbidden to detonate a nuclear weapon. It’s at least 5 years in Prison.

    • According to state law in Hesse, burglars could still be sentenced to death until 2018, but since this was already prohibited by federal law, the law was no longer applied for a long time. It has since been abolished, but it’s still funny.

    • Driving blind is forbidden.

    • You’re allowed to drive naked - getting out of the car however requires you to be clothed.

    • If you fall asleep at work and injure yourself as a result, for example because you fell off a chair, it’s considered to be an accident at work and the insurance is liable.

    • In North Rhine-Westphalia, the following applies: If a civil servant dies while travelling on business, the business trip is deemed to have ended.

    • teft@lemmy.worldEnglish
      13·
      8 个月前

      In North Rhine-Westphalia, the following applies: If a civil servant dies while travelling on business, the business trip is deemed to have ended.

      In the rest of Germany they deal with zombie civil servants.

    • Shialac@lemmy.world
      81·
      8 个月前

      Actually there is no law that specifically prohibits anyone from being naked in public

      • Muehe@lemmy.ml
        4·
        8 个月前

        §183 StGB prohibits men from “exhibitionist acts”, which is nowadays reduced to meaning “indecent exposure” but in the past was used to discriminate LGBTQ people. It is only prosecuted upon request though.

    • harald_im_netz@feddit.de
      0·
      8 个月前

      regarding the death sentence in Hesse: By law, a public vote had to be held. You could have voted against the abolishment of the death sentence.

  • vormadikter@startrek.website
    37·
    8 个月前

    One thing you can do in Germany but can’t in the US is “drinking in public”. Bring your beer, sit down at the market, park or just walk around while drinking it.

    A very common thing, specially in cities with a high amount of students or the like is the so called “Wegbier” (on-the-way-beer) where you go with friends from your house to i.e. a pub and on that way you have a beer to bridge the gap so to say.

    I got stopped for this in Lithuania and Canada and basically learned the hard way that this is not common elsewhere.

  • tryptaminev 🇵🇸 🇺🇦 🇪🇺@feddit.de
    281·
    8 个月前

    Something that is practically not enforced is that it is a minor offense for barkeepers to give drunk people more to drink.

    An important thing to differentiate is the youth protection laws compared with the US. In Germany it is not illegal for minors to be in the posession of alcohol or to drink alcohol. It is the responsibility of the adults around them, to not sell or give them alcohol as well as to prevent them from drinking.

    And that is very important, because in the US the teenagers get punished by law for being caught with alcohol, which is completely wrong. The idea of these laws is that minors are not yet responsible enough for handling alcohol properly. So it is logical that it is societies responsibility to protect them from alcohol. But the minors cannot know any better, as is the spirit of the law.

    It is completely wrong to hold someone responsible for something that you declare him to be incapable of being responsible for. I think this example illustrates well, how legal systems can focus on deterrence and retaliation or how they can focus on integration and rehabilitation. (It is a spectrum of course)

    • CluckN@lemmy.world
      8·
      8 个月前

      Bit of a misunderstanding. In the US if a minor is sold alcohol by a bar/liquor store the business will lose their liquor license. This is a huge incentive for adults to check who they are selling to before a cop finds out where they got it.

      If a minor is caught drinking the majority of police will contact their guardian. If it’s repeated then they usually issue a small fine that can be offset if they partake in AA.

      • deo@lemmy.dbzer0.com
        4·
        8 个月前

        Idk about where you are, but in my state, you can lose your driver’s license if you are under 21 and in possession of alcohol. Granted, I’ve never known of that punishment ever being enforced, but it is a possibility. That’s why young cashiers have to call over someone else to scan my beer.

  • Kornblumenratte@feddit.de
    17·
    8 个月前

    By law oxen are horses in Bavaria.

    (There has been – or is, I don’t know – a regulation regarding the use of horses for forestry work. Because of a forester who prefered to use oxen, rather than changing the complete regulation text they just added an article stating that “oxen are horses within the meaning of this regulation”.)

  • waka@feddit.deEnglish
    16·
    8 个月前

    I think BGB §18 was fascinating until it got revised/removed:
    As far as I understood this, if you have to transport a corpse in Germany, you have to be a trustworthy person according to the German Civil Code (BGB). However, you do NOT have to be a trustworthy person to transport a skeleton. So if you see someone with a fresh corpse in the trunk of a car in Germany, you can rest assured. You can blindly trust this person. If, on the other hand, you see someone with a pile of skeletons in their car, then you should quickly take cover.

      • KISSmyOS@feddit.de
        6·
        8 个月前

        That’s an entire thing in German law. You also need trustworthyness to own a gun or get a drivers license. It basically means that those aren’t rights but privileges that can be taken away if you commit an offense which may or may not be directly related.

        • nodimetotie@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
          4·
          8 个月前

          I’d like to see a person who applies for a gun license and needs to show that they are trustworthy and then says “and I am also going to cary a corpse in my car”

      • waka@feddit.deEnglish
        2·
        8 个月前

        Oh, that’s a sad loss of a fun law… Well, I don’t have an original text, since I was just pointed to a snippet of it a long time ago. It stuck with me because of how morbid it was.

        I do have some memories on other fun implications of laws due to how specific they are. I can post some from memory if you like. Something about lawnmowers and defective cars for example.

        • DetektivEdgar@feddit.de
          1·
          8 个月前

          If this law existed, it probably was not § 18 BGB. According to this § 18 was about the time a person is considered to be dead. There are laws about the lacking reliability of people but these are as far as I know usually part of administrative law codes like e.g. § 35 GewO and not the BGB.

  • hades@lemm.ee
    161·
    8 个月前

    There’s literally no general speed limit on the Autobahn. My car has winter tires right now and I’m legally required to have a small sticker on the dash that reminds me not to exceed their rated maximum speed of 230 km/h.

    • viking
      1·
      8 个月前

      But you can and will be prosecuted for damage to the building or hurting anyone on the way out. Only a total clean getaway won’t impact your sentence (if caught). What I’m not so sure about is if it has an impact on a scheduled early release with probation.

      • AnnEffes@feddit.de
        1·
        8 个月前

        Of course. Was asking myself: Do I need to mention that the circumstances of the escape may change things? Naaa, everybody knows by now as EVERY TIME you mention the “escape is not illegal” thing somebody will add that.

        • ebikefolder@feddit.de
          1·
          8 个月前

          If you hurt somebody or damage other people’s property, that’s illegal regardless of the legal activity you happen to do at the time. Example: It’s legal to watch tv, but if you damage the sidewalk in front of your house by doing so, you have to pay for the damage.

  • Downcount@lemmy.world
    12·
    8 个月前

    Wegbier

    Is that a thing in whole Germany? I didn’t know this when I was still living in Lower Saxony (where I’ve seen this doing it by the youth at weekends) but learned that it’s totally normal for everybody / everyday in North Rhine-Westphalia.