Inspired by the posts below, my game about law – for lawyers and non-lawyers alike – is the following question: can the readers of this blog provide non-US examples of misunderstood legal statements?

To begin, I offer the common misunderstanding about the basic words “legal” or “lawful” and “illegal” or “unlawful”. Lawyers know that there are many ways something can be “illegal” or “unlawful”, from constituting a tort to being liable to be quashed in judicial review proceedings to contravening the criminal law. On the other hand, it is common for lay people to go assume that if something is unlawful it must necessarily be contrary to the criminal law.

Here are the inspirations:

Misunderstood legal quotations

OK, Dear Readers: Let’s play a law-geek game: Give and discuss examples of famous legal and law-related quotations or statements that are frequently thrown around (by lawyers and non-lawyers alike) in a way that completely and utterly misses the point of the original quotation or statement. …

Picked up on Volokh: Famous Misunderstood Legal Quotations and Statements

So, any other examples?