Hiba Bouhlani
Paralegal
British law contains plenty of eccentric legislation, reflecting the political and historical struggles that shaped today’s governing system. Many of these myths still circulate as facts, with deep roots in the country’s past. Erroneous nonetheless amusing, we will go through a selection of them in greater detail.
Many people believe you can’t “die” in Parliament because the government would have to cover the cost of a public burial. That idea is simply wrong. At least four people have died in the Houses of Parliament. Guy Fawkes stands out among them, as authorities executed him on the spot. These facts quickly debunk the myth.
The Law Commission’s Statute Law Repeals team, which has been responsible for repealing 2,000 obsolete laws since 1965, claims that dying in the Houses of Parliament is not unlawful [1]. The team also says that it has not found any statute indicating that death in a royal palace is grounds for a state funeral, and neither have the House of Commons authority on such affairs.
It is permissible to shoot a Welshman with a longbow on Sunday in Hereford’s Cathedral Close, or inside the city walls of Chester after midnight, or a Scotsman within the city walls of York on any other day except Sunday
There are several variations of this myth. It is sometimes permissible to murder a Welshman, as long as it is done with a crossbow fired from the city walls of Chester. Within the city walls of York, it is sometimes a Scotsman, and the weapon of choice is a longbow. Sometimes the site is Hereford, and it cannot be on a Sunday. Some people claim this myth comes from the idea that “it used to be prohibited.” But no matter how you look at it, the claim is completely false – and always has been – for both Scots and Welsh alike.
That people are so eager to perpetuate falsehoods like murdering Scots or Welsh people being permissible under too precise circumstances may reveal something concerning about many’s mindsets, or rather a dark sense of humour harboured by centuries of competition and resentment. Of course, the English have been at war with the Scots and the Welsh at various points throughout our history, and it would have been permissible to murder enemy fighters during times of war which may go some way to understanding the notion. Murder ‘under the Queen’s peace,’ on the other hand, is and has always been unlawful under common law.
In addition to this, The Law Commission couldn’t find any evidence that any of these laws ever existed. They stated: “It is illegal to shoot a Welsh or Scottish (or any other) person regardless of the day, location, or choice of weaponry” [2].
This myth often comes up when people talk about placing a stamp upside down on a letter or defacing a banknote that features a Queen. According to the assumption, vandalising an image of the Queen is treason, and so placing a stamp on a letter the wrong way round may be punishable by death.
The notion that causing harm to the Queen’s image is disloyal appears to stem from a misunderstanding of two distinct statutes. The first, a true statute, is that defacing a banknote is unlawful, albeit the penalty is a £200 fine rather than life imprisonment for treason. The motivation for this regulation is most likely a combination of considerations, including making counterfeiting more difficult and trying to maximise the lifespan of notes in circulation (as printing new banknotes is an expensive business). It is permissible to destroy a banknote because doing so removes its value, whereas a disfigured banknote continues in circulation.
The second statute is false.Many legal myths focus on one or both Royal Families and the idea that the death penalty still applies—often for minor offences under some imaginary law. The UK only fully abolished the death sentence for treason in 1998, so it’s likely this myth lingers as a leftover from outdated history books [3].
Contrary to common perception, the Queen does not possess all of the swans in England; however, she does own the majority of them. The Queen has had first dibs on any “wild, unmarked mute swans in open water” since the 12th century, but only on the Thames and its tributaries. It’s unlawful to murder one of them, but it’s not treason and the Queen has no claim on tame swans, or other types of swans.
Outside the royal family, only the fellows of St John’s College, Cambridge, have the right to hunt and eat unmarked mute swans. No one knows exactly where this unusual privilege came from, but swan traps still exist in the college’s riverside walls. According to St John’s, no one has eaten a swan there since 1896, and the traps haven’t been used in modern times [4].
This is a legal misconception that may have preserved the careers of certain individuals. It’s perfectly legal to offer someone a terrible reference, but it’s not necessarily a stellar idea. This happens because making a false remark that harms someone’s reputation—like calling an employee unreliable or tardy – counts as defamation. The person affected can sue, especially if the comment leads to real consequences, such as losing a job offer.
The law does not expressly address references, although this is one of the areas in which defamation law has the biggest impact on regular people’s lives. In addition, the UK enforces defamation laws that strongly favor the person being defamed. This led to the rise of ‘libel tourism,’ where individuals pursued defamation claims in the UK, expecting better odds of winning their cases. [5].
Whilst the majority of these laws are testament to a bygone era, it also demonstrates the progression of political development and heralded for the demonstrable and relatively stable state of affairs lauded globally today.
[1] 6 Myths and Realities of British Law, https://www.oxford-royale.com/articles/6-myths-realities-british-law/
[2] 6 Myths and Realities of British Law, https://www.oxford-royale.com/articles/6-myths-realities-british-law/
[3] On fantasy island: the seven myths undermining human rights in the UK today, A Small, 2014, https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/humanrights/2014/11/10/on-fantasy-island-the-seven-myths-undermining-human-rights-in-the-uk-today/
[4] Does the Queen Really Own All the Swans in England?, R,Carroll, 2018, https://theculturetrip.com/europe/united-kingdom/england/articles/does-the-queen-really-own-all-the-swans-in-england/
REFERENCES
[1] UK consumer law reform: will the tough talk be matched by action?, 2021
https://www.traverssmith.com/knowledge/knowledge-container/uk-consumer-law-reform-will-the-tough-talk-be-matched-by-action/
[2] UK Government consults on major shake-up of competition and consumer law regimes (part 2), 2021
https://riskandcompliance.freshfields.com/post/102h3ks/uk-government-consults-on-major-shake-up-of-competition-and-consumer-law-regimes
Sources:
www.ukpracticallaw.thompsonreuters.com
https://hallellis.co.uk/contractual-consideration
https://www.lexisnexis.co.uk/legal/guidance/forming-enforceable-contracts-certainty
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