禁止吃口香糖、十点后不许冲马桶！世界各国都有那些奇怪的法律？

If you fancy a spot of eternal life, forget the Holy Grail: just go and live in the remote Arctic town of Longyearbyen, where dying is against the law. Actually, this is because it was found that bodies didn’t decompose in the permafrost. The graveyard stopped accepting newcomers 70 years ago; so if you fall gravely ill there now, you will be hastily dispatched by plane to the mainland, where you can end your days without getting arrested.

如果你想找一个永生的地方，忘了圣杯吧，你只需要去遥远的北极城镇朗伊尔城就够了，因为这里的法律禁止死亡。事实上，这是因为这里都是冻土，尸体永远也不会腐烂。那儿的墓地在70年前就已经不再接收任何新成员了；所以如果你现在在那儿又刚好病入膏肓的话，那么你将会被飞机遣送回大陆，而在大陆上你可以安全的度过你最后的日子而不用被逮捕。

Ever thought that chewing gum could land you in jail? Well, in Singapore, it has been completely illegal since 1992. The only exception is nicotine gum, but even then smokers can only get it from a pharmacy with a prescription. Chewing gum is legal in New York, of course, but cinema owners there must chisel all gum off the undersides of their auditorium seats every month.Makes trodden-in popcorn seem positively pleasant.

你以前有没有想过吃口香糖也会让你进监狱？在新加坡，从1992年开始吃口香糖就是一种违法的行为了。唯一的例外是尼古丁口香糖，但是即使是吸烟者也只能凭处方才能从药店买到这种口香糖。而在纽约，吃口香糖当然是合法的，但是电影院的老板们每个月不得不从那些座椅下面清除掉那些粘在上面的口香糖。所以电影院老板肯定更愿意你吃爆米花。

The people of Brunei, Indonesia and Malaysia simply love the durian fruit, which looks a little like a cross between a pineapple and a porcupine. However, many local authorities have completely banned the consumption of this delicacy from buses, subways, hotels and airports. Is this yet another outrageous infringement of civil liberties? Well, since the durian is said to smell like a mixture of "pig-droppings, turpentine and onions", maybe not, on this occasion.

来自文莱、印度尼西亚和马来西亚的人们都很喜欢吃榴莲，这种水果看起来很像菠萝和豪猪的结合体。但是当地政府都禁止人们在公交车上、地铁、酒店以及机场里食用这种水果。政府的这种行为是不是严重干涉了人们的自由？可是据说这种水果的味道有点像猪的粪便、松脂以及洋葱味道的结合体，所以从这个角度来看的话，政府的行为其实也不过分。

When dining at a restaurant in Denmark, you don’t have to pay for your food unless, by your own opinion, you are ‘full’ at the end of your meal. A wafer-thin mint, sir?

在丹麦餐馆就餐的顾客不用付钱，除非顾客自己在用餐后确定已吃饱，才用付账。花钱少吧，先生？

If you ever suffer at the rubber-gloved hands of a suspicious and painfully overzealous British customs officer, don’t be tempted to take him or her to court – no matter how innocent you are. Section 268 of the Customs Laws Consolidation Act 1876 rules that no action can be brought against such an official without one month’s notice. While Section 272 of the same Act insists that any action must be started within one month of the incident.

如果你被一名充满怀疑和过度热心的英国海关人员搜查过的话，那么请不要试图起诉他或她——无论你是多么的无辜。海关1876条例的第268章规定要提前一个月通知法院，你才有权利向法院提起诉讼的。而可笑的是，该条例的272章却规定必须在事件发生的一个月内向法院提起诉讼。

You are forbidden to be fat in Japan. Although their country already has one of the world’s lowest obesity rates (less than 5 per cent, in contrast to the USA’s 35 per cent), that didn’t stop Japanese lawmakers from setting a maximum waistline size in 2009. Every man aged 40 and over must not have a waist measuring 2000px or above, every woman, 2250px or above. And this from the land that brought us sumo wrestling…

在日本，法律不允许人们肥胖。虽然日本这个国家已经是目前世界上肥胖率最低的国家（低于5%，而美国却达到了35%），虽然如此，日本的立法者还是在2009年的时候制定了一个最大腰围标准：40岁或者以上的男人其腰围不能超过2000px，而相应年龄的女人则不能超过2250px。而就是这个国家给我们带来了相扑表演......

Thailand may tolerate many exotic sexual shenanigans, but it is still illegal to leave your house there if you are not wearing underwear. And you can’t drive your car if you’re not wearing a shirt, not matter what’s going on in your trousers. Nor should you step on any of the nation’s currency. And don’t even think of insulting the king – you could get 15 years in jail.

泰国是一个可以容忍很多性恶作剧的国家，但是，如果你没有穿内裤就离开家的话，就会被认为是犯法的。而如果不穿衬衫的话，你是不能开车的，而你想穿什么裤子都没问题。你也不能用脚去踩泰国的货币。你更加不应该做的事情是侵犯国王——否则你会得到15年的刑期。

If you’re on a safari in Kenya and your guide suddenly removes all of his clothes before wandering off towards the wildlife, do resist the temptation to do the same. While it’s completely legal for Kenyan citizens to streak across the Masai Mara, it is illegal for foreigners to do so. It’s also deeply inadvisable for at least 147 other reasons.

如果你在肯尼亚的大草原上旅行，这时候导游突然间全身脱光光，然后大摇大摆的朝野生动物们走去，看到此情此景，你千万要忍住，不要模仿导游的行为。对肯尼亚人来说，这种做法完全是合法的行为，他们可以全身赤裸的在马赛马拉大草原上晃荡，但是如果外国人也这么做的话，那就是违法的了。除此之外，还有147个理由可以阻止你这么做。

In Denmark, you legally have to check under your car for children who may be sleeping there before you start the engine. But don’t panic too much if you forget and get thrown in jail for running over some catnapping kids – in Denmark it is not against the law to escape from prison.

在丹麦，在开车之前，你必须在发动引擎之前先检查一下看看车底下有没有小孩躲在下面。但是即使你忘了检查，并且还把正在你车底下睡觉的小孩给碾了过去而进了监狱，那你也不用太紧张——在丹麦，从监狱里逃跑并不违法。

You must plan your movements very carefully in Switzerland. Flushing the toilet after 10pm in an apartment building is illegal there. The Government curiously considered noise pollution to be more anti-social than olfactory pollution. Not sure we agree with them on that one. Anyway, whether you relieve yourself and leave the flat humming, or you just wait until morning, the choice is completely yours.

在瑞士，你得好好地安排的自己的日常活动。在公寓大楼里，如果在10点以后你还在冲马桶的话就会被当作是违法的行为。和嗅觉污染比起来，当地政府认为噪音污染对社会的影响更大。不能肯定在这一点上我们会同意瑞士政府的观点。但是无论如何，解决内急让公寓大楼陷入嗡嗡噪音，或者憋到天亮再解决，总之选择的权力在你的手中。

You’re a British citizen, you pay upwards of £77.50 for your passport, it has a valid picture of you in it – so it’s yours, right? Well, maybe. According to the text on the leaflet it belongs to Her Majesty’s Government. But in 1955, Earl Jowitt, a former solicitor-general and attorney-general, pointed out that ‘the Government’ couldn’t own anything because there is no such legal entity. No one since has been able to clarify the matter. So who gets the £77.50?

你是一个英国市民，然后你付77.5英镑来获得你的护照，在护照里有你的一张照片——所以这张护照肯定是你的，是吧？嗯，或许吧。根据护照上的一段说明书的说法，这个护照是属于英国政府的。但是在1955年的时候，乔伊特伯爵（英国前副检察长和首席检察官）却指出“政府”无法拥有任何东西，因为根本就不存在这个法律实体。从那以后，就再也没有人澄清过这件事情。所以到底是谁获得了这77.5英镑？

If you’re one of those spirited sorts who relaxes by re-enacting battles, you might want to think twice about taking a Caribbean holiday – it’s against the law to wear camouflage clothing in Trinidad and Tobago and St Lucia. Apparently this is to prevent people from imitating military and other officials, and you could be detained and have your kit confiscated. That is, of course, if they can find you.

如果你是那种精力充沛的人，都要通过玩战斗对抗来放松的话，那么在去加勒比海度假之前你可能要三思——在特立尼达和多巴哥，穿着迷彩服是一种违法行为。很显然，这是为了禁止人们模仿军方官员以及其他的官员，如果你穿着迷彩服的话，将会被拘留并且你的装备还会被没收。当然那也得在他们找得到你的情况下。

According to the brilliantly named ‘The Outer Space Act 1986’, the Secretary of State is permitted to use ‘reasonable force’ to prevent an alien invasion of the UK – as long as the aliens don’t possess a licence to invade. In which case, they can operate their ‘space objects’ in perfect legality. This is the sort of law that truly made Britain great.

根据“1986外太空法案”的规定，如果外星人没有持有侵略证的话，那么国务大臣就有权利使用“适当的力量”来阻止外星人入侵英国。在外星人入侵的情况下，英国就可以完全合法的使用自己的“太空武器”了。而正是这种法律才让英国在过去如此的强大。

Drinking a lot is confusing enough without having to remember a myriad of boozing bylaws. For example, in St Louis you can’t drink beer while sitting on a city street, but in Chicago you can be arrested for drinking standing up anywhere in the city. You cannot be served wine in a teacup in Topeka, Kansas; while in Cleveland, no more than one person may sip from a whisky bottle. Saskatchewan in Canada at least has the rights of the drinker at its civic heart – it is against the law to drink water in beer parlours there.

虽然我们不用太在意酒桌上众多的喝酒禁忌，但是想喝多点还真不是一件容易的事情。举个例子，在圣路易斯市，当你坐在城市街道上时是不允许喝啤酒的，但是在芝加哥，不管是在这个城市的哪个角落，只要你站着喝酒警察就可以逮捕你。在堪萨斯州的托皮卡市，是不允许用茶杯来盛酒的；而在克利夫兰市，是不允许用威士忌酒瓶直接喝的。加拿大的萨斯喀彻温省的做法就更绝了——在啤酒酒吧里面喝水是违法的。

If you’re in Prague and your taxi driver ups the meter setting beyond the standard rate of ‘level 1’, watch out. If he turns it up to ‘level 2’ he might just be ripping you off – par for the tourist course. But if he cranks it up all the way to ‘level 3’ then it’s time to panic. This is the official Government-sanctioned rate that must be used for all taxi rides following a nuclear explosion

假设你现在在布拉格，如果的士司机把计时器表盘调到标准“水平1”以外去的话，那你就要小心了。如果司机把标准调到“水平2”的话，他这时候可能就是在敲诈你了——“水平2”是为旅游路线设计的，费用较高。但是如果司机把标准升到“水平3”的话，这时候你要感到恐惧才对。因为“水平3”是政府制定的标准，而这种标准只有在核爆炸的情况下才会被应用。