This is a propos of nothing really, only an odd conversation I was having with someone earlier today. We couldn't come up with an answer, so naturally I thought of throwing it open to the collected wisdom on OTF.
Most laws were originally framed in order to stop people doing things they might otherwise choose to do, in a "free" society. Kill each other, steal, smoke indoors, that kind of thing.
Some laws have been brought in to regulate what people were previously free to do, and allow them to carry on doing so under some form of control - drive a car, watch the BBC, get married, etc.
But have there ever been laws enacted specifically to allow people to do things that they couldn't have done, without that law? About the only thing we could come up with was "act as an MP". You know, in the sense that without the law saying there was such a thing as an MP, anyone declaring themselves to be one would either be ignored, or if they persisted, locked up in a secure institution. But are there any more interesting examples? What laws have expanded the "freedom" of people to "do" things, rather than prevented or controlled them from doing things?
Most laws were originally framed in order to stop people doing things they might otherwise choose to do, in a "free" society. Kill each other, steal, smoke indoors, that kind of thing.
Some laws have been brought in to regulate what people were previously free to do, and allow them to carry on doing so under some form of control - drive a car, watch the BBC, get married, etc.
But have there ever been laws enacted specifically to allow people to do things that they couldn't have done, without that law? About the only thing we could come up with was "act as an MP". You know, in the sense that without the law saying there was such a thing as an MP, anyone declaring themselves to be one would either be ignored, or if they persisted, locked up in a secure institution. But are there any more interesting examples? What laws have expanded the "freedom" of people to "do" things, rather than prevented or controlled them from doing things?
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