Legal Curiosities: Fact or Fable?

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The Law Commission has published Legal Curiosities: Fact or Fable?

From time-to-time there are Statute Law (Repeals) Acts intended to tidy out dead wood from the massive so-called 'statute book.'  (See the 2013 Act).  A few candidates for the next such Act appear in the document. 

It is illegal to:

Enter Parliament wearing a suit of armour; to be drunk on licensed premises; to carry a plank along a pavement; to be drunk in charge of a horse and to fire a cannon within 300 yards of a dwelling house.   It is definitely illegal to kill a Scotsman in York whether within or outside the city walls and regardless of the day of the week !! 

It is legal to:

Die in Parliament (and some have); eat mince pies on Christmas Day; put a stamp upside down on a letter. 

A fascinating insight into some of the things which have been considered unlawful during our lengthy legal history and to some of the myths which are mentioned occasionally !

In English Law, once a statute is enacted it will always remain in force until repealed and this is so irrespective of whether the statute is actually enforced.  There is no rule of desuetude.