"Peter Lynch" wrote in message
...
We all know that ignorance of the law is no defence. So it
would seem reasonable that people should have, at least, a
passing familiarity with it.
Given that this country's been passing laws for 900+ years
does anyone have a view on how long it would take to actually
read them all?
As an easier option, how far back to most of the laws that
people generally get into trouble with, go? I'd guess maybe 20-30
years. So as a "lightweight" option, how many laws would
we be talking about - and how long to skim through that lot?

You presumably mean the criminal laws, that is the laws that impose criminal
sanctions. If you included other laws it would be quite impossible for
anyone to read all the laws, just as it would be impossible to read the
entire Oxford English Dictionary.

A good criminal law textbook would take no longer to read than "War And
Peace" and would give you sufficient basics to enable you to avoid
committing the most serious offences such as murder or rape or GBH. You
could then at leisure read up on all the various road traffic and
environmental offences. I suppose it will depend on whether you want to know
about all the criminal offences that anyone could possibly commit, or merely
those that are relevant to the way you live and work, as a specific
individual.