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There Should Be a Law: Difference between revisions
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* The phrase is occasionally used in ''[[Judge Dredd]]'' stories, almost always with a Judge around to respond, "There is."
* In ''[[X-Men]] Noir'', Professor Xavier taught the students at his reform school how to be better criminals instead of actually reforming them. He claims this was an exercise in gaining their trust. When one of his students took a dive off the roof, the investigation uncovered his operation. The X-Men escaped, but Xavier wasn't so lucky. He's sitting in Riker's until the D.A. can figure out just what to charge him with; there's really no law against giving someone boxing lessons, teaching them how to pick a lock, or taking them to the firing range.<ref> In real-life this would be covered under criminal conspiracy laws, which take into account intention and planning, even if the person being charged did not actually take part in a crime.</ref>
* ''Judo Girl'' and Judo Boy once followed an Earth-bound meteor only to meet up with their archenemy Captain Steel at the crash site. Captain Steel was furious, because this was perhaps the only time they'd shown up to stop him from doing something ''not against the law''. He was going to take the meteor, yes, but it's hardly stealing if it doesn't belong to anyone in the first place!
* In the early '90s Justice Society miniseries, [[Black Canary]] wisecracks while fighting some thugs that "Handguns are just too easy to get these days! There oughta be a law!" This annoyed a letter-writer who took it as social commentary, but it was meant as a knowing wink at the existence of gun-control laws in later decades.
== [[Film]] ==
* ''[[Star Trek: Nemesis]]'':
{{quote|'''Worf:''' Romulan ale should be illegal.
'''Geordi:''' [[Subverted Trope|It is]]. <br />
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** In that case, the man should have been charged at least involuntary manslaughter. There ''are'' laws concerning this sort of thing, and it's a reckless killing like those used in law school tests. You could even get him in most states for Depraved Heart Murder because messing with maps for a desert endurance trip with the minimum amount of supplies is pretty callous.
* The ''[[CSI: NY]]'' episode ''Prey'' had a stalker [[Asshole Victim]] who had already caused a victim to commit suicide while committing actions that were either legal or only warranted a slap on the wrist. The whole episode was an [[Anvilicious]] tirade on how the law does very little to protect people from stalkers (though it may fall into [[Some Anvils Need to Be Dropped]]).
** Another episode, "The Lying Game", had a case leading the team to a company specialized on making fake alibis (based on the real life [http://www.alibinetwork.com/index.jsp Alibi Network]) to cover up things like extra-marital affairs, etc; going so far as to provide fake receipts and an entire call center of people pretending to be representatives of companies that don't even exist. Flack is particularly annoyed by this and snipes that their services could have been used to cover up a murder (the two main suspects had alibis provided by the company). {{spoiler|Turns out the two were just having an affair but the murder was still made to be indirectly caused by the company: The killer stumbled upon his coworker's (faked) receipts for "leadership seminars", thought this meant his boss was secretly training the coworker to be promoted instead of him and killed the boss.}}
* ''[[The Practice]]'' did this constantly - most cases were thinly-disguised [[Writer on Board|attempts to promote one agenda or another]].
** Ditto ''[[Boston Legal]]'', itself a [[Spin-Off]] of ''The Practice''.
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== [[Real Life]] ==
* A wide amount of real world examples of this trope stem from Freedom of Speech laws (chiefly the first amendment of the United States constitution and laws like it elsewhere). Simply put, having the freedom to express one's opinion regardless of its content as loud as you want creates something of a mess when what you're saying offends any appreciable number of people.
* "The Opinion Card" is a spin doctor slang term for protecting oneself from prosecution for stating untrue facts (which is slander) by claiming it's just your opinion. The alternate version is packaging an untruthful claim as a question for the same purpose.
** [[South Park]] parodied this when Cartman wrote a scathing, heinous manifesto about Wendy. He simply added "or does she?" to each claim, turning it into a question and therefore not a slanderous statement of fact.
* In the real world, ''[[I'm a Humanitarian|cannibalism]]'' is not technically illegal in many countries -- no one ever thought they'd ''need'' it to be. This has led to some... interesting trials. Murder doesn't always cover it (as ruled in R v Dudley and Stephens, killing someone to ensure your own survival is not a valid excuse for murder, even when there is no other viable options available); the "victims" are often those who died of an accident, natural causes, or suicide.
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* True of government, lobbyists, and many white collar "crimes":
{{quote|"The scandal in Washington isn't what's illegal. It's what's legal."|'''Michael Kinsley'''}}
* In [[Joisey|New Jersey]], there is the infamous [[wikipedia:
* After the US Supreme Court ruled that a vague California law against selling "violent" video games was unconstitutional, the usual suspects came out of the woodwork decrying the inevitable destruction of, yep, "the children," despite the fact that the average gamer is about 25. The icing on the cake? Every one of them asked, rhetorically, if the audience would likewise be ok if violent and explicit movies could also be sold to children. Well, there is no law at any level of governance anywhere in the US preventing such a thing. Age restrictions are enforced solely by theaters and retailers. Considering nobody even knew selling an 'R' movie to a kid was legal, I think we can trust the same people not to sell 'M' games to kids.
** There are laws preventing the sale of sexually explicit content to children, but they are not (and can never be) tied to the MPAA rating-system. There are no such laws for violent content.
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