History Main / SuddenlySignificantRule

* Prior to the treaty of Lisbon there was no rule for leaving the EU (which is not to say it did not happen, both Greenland and the former French territory that is now Algeria were technically part of predecessors of the EU at some point in time), however that treaty explicitly introduced a rule, mostly summed up in article 50. Article 50 establishes that whatever the new relationship between the former EU member and the "rest-EU" is going to be has to be negotiated within two years, otherwise the new relationship will be the "default" of the EU relations to any non-EU country with no special rights or obligations. However, there is a way around the two year deadline, as Britain showed in light of the "Brexit" vote. The referendum ''technically'' being non-binding, Article 50 is not triggered until Parliament (the only body in Britain that can make laws) ''explicitly'' makes a law to leave the EU under article 50. And there AintNoRule that they have to do it ''now'' - or at any point from now until the sun turns into a red giant. So while Article 50 as originally worded provides for a (in political terms) quick and clean divorce, a loophole nobody seems to have foreseen enables countries to leave and not leave the EU at the same time. Whether or not this was intentional on the part of any involved politician [[Administrivia.RuleOfCautiousEditingJudgment is best discussed elsewhere]].

* In ''Webcomic/GunnerkriggCourt'' the threat of this is used as [[spoiler: leverage on Antimony's father to force him to return]]. The Court caught [[spoiler: Antimony]] cheating on her schoolwork, but rather than address academic dishonesty in any normal fashion they instead threaten to pretend to not have noticed until the last moment, then use it to expel her immediately before graduation. There's minor evidence that this is a pattern. They employ obvious obstacles students can get around while also surveying them through subtler methods, then they do nothing about any rules they break - but then if the Court wants something suddenly those rules can be very important.

[[folder:Anime and Manga]]

* A bit spoileriffic example from ''Manga/TheLawOfUeki'': The characters get special powers to participate in a tournament to decide who's gonna be the next God (since the current one wants to quit). There are two rules: If a participant attacks a normal person with his powers, the attacker loses one sai (talents, unique qualities of every person), and losing all your sais means you stop existing; but after a tournament fight, the winner gets a new sai. This becomes irrelevant after the first stage, since the rest of the tournament is held up in Heaven, there's not normal humans outside of contestants, and everyone who got that far already won a lot of sais. [softreturn] Cue to the climax, the BigBad gets cornered and [[spoiler: gets out of the tournament, meaning that every time the Hero attacks he loses one sai.]] Meanwhile, the Hero [[spoiler: ends up down to one sai, with another hit he will win the fight but also his existence will end. He attacks anyway but doesn't disappear because in the middle of the fight he accidentally blasted away a poor ComicRelief, which gave him an additional sai]]

* Prior to the treaty of Lisbon there was no rule for leaving the EU (which is not to say it did not happen, both Greenland and the former French territory that is now Algeria were technically part of predecessors of the EU at some point in time), however that treaty explicitly introduced a rule, mostly summed up in article 50. Article 50 establishes that whatever the new relationship between the former EU member and the "rest-EU" is going to be has to be negotiated within two years, otherwise the new relationship will be the "default" of the EU relations to any non-EU country with no special rights or obligations. However, there is a way around the two year deadline, as Britain showed in light of the "Brexit" vote. The referendum ''technically'' being non-binding, Article 50 is not triggered until Parliament (the only body in Britain that can make laws) ''explicitly'' makes a law to leave the EU under article 50. And there AintNoRule that they have to do it ''now'' - or at any point from now until the sun turns into a red giant. So while Article 50 as originally worded provides for a (in political terms) quick and clean divorce, a loophole nobody seems to have foreseen enables countries to leave and not leave the EU at the same time. Whether or not this was intentional on the part of any involved politician [[RuleOfCautiousEditingJudgment is best discussed elsewhere]].

* On July 24, 1983, Major League UsefulNotes/{{Baseball}} slugger George Brett of the Kansas City Royals hit a two-run home run with two outs in the ninth inning, giving his team a 5-4 lead. Then, New York Yankees manager [[MagnificentBastard Billy Martin]] brought to the attention of the umpire that Brett's bat had too much pine tar on it. [[labelnote:Explanation]]Pine tar is used so the player can have a better grip on the bat. The rules of the time said you couldn't have more than 18 inches of pine tar on the bat, but Brett regularly used more than 24 inches. The rule was originally made to keep the home team from having to replace too many discolored balls, but as time progressed and balls became cheaper, the rule's reason wasn't valid any more.[[/labelnote]] Martin had known that Brett was using more pine tar than the rules allowed for quite some time, but nobody else noticed and Martin kept it to himself until it proved useful during a game. The umpire ruled Brett out on an illegally batted ball, which meant the Yankees won. After the game the Royals protested to the league, and the AL president upheld the protest, so the game was restarted on August 18th from the point of Brett's home run (the Royals won 5-4, but not before Martin tried to have Brett called out for not touching all the bases - [[OutGambitted his intent was frustrated]] when the umpire [[CrazyPrepared pulled out a signed affidavit from the umpires of the first game saying that Brett did in fact touch them all]]). The rule was later modified to say that if nobody complained before the batter hit a ball, the violation doesn't nullify the play. See the whole thing [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gbEHAsZxRYo here]] (Brett makes a particularly nice DynamicEntry at 2:40 when he's called out).

[[folder: Anime and Manga ]]

* A bit spoileriffic example from ''Manga/TheLawOfUeki'': The characters get special powers to participate in a tournament to decide who's gonna be the next God (since the current one wants to quit). There are two rules: If a participant attacks a normal person with his powers, the attacker loses one sai (talents, unique qualities of every person), and losing all your sais means you stop existing; but after a tournament fight, the winner gets a new sai. This becomes irrelevant after the first stage, since the rest of the tournament is held up in Heaven, there's not normal humans outside of contestants, and everyone who got that far already won a lot of sais. [softreturn] Cue to the climax, the BigBad gets cornered and [[spoiler: gets out of the tournament, meaning that every time the Hero attacks he loses one sai.]] Meanwhile, the Hero [[spoiler: ends up down to one sai, with another hit he will win the fight but also his existence will end. He attacks anyway but doesn't dissapear because in the middle of the fight he accidentally blasted away a poor ComicRelief, which gave him an additional sai]]

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[[folder: Film ]]

* In ''Film/ThePrincessDiaries 2,'' Genovian law apparently says that women have to be married to take the throne, though this has never been upheld in practice. The villain brings it up because his nephew-by-marriage is next in line after Mia.

[[folder: Literature ]]

[[folder: Live Action Television ]]

* Reality TV Competitions and Game Shows in general have many, many more rules than a casual viewer needs to know. Little-known and usually behind-the-scenes rules often only come up when they're about to be broken. For example, if "Series/TheAmazingRace" reminds viewers about requirements for teams to take a certain mode of transportation, you can be sure someone is about to mess up.

[[folder: Politics ]]

* Surprisingly many constitutional crisis are ultimately due to this. Either a rule was formulated once and then largely forgotten or a rule was worded very unclearly and its interpretation in modern times makes for endless debates. Just take the Second Ammendment or whatever a "natural born citizen" is supposed to be
** The constitutional crisis is caused by a lack of stable/generally accepted leadership that allows many somewhat powerfull politicians to either claim leadership for themselves or reject the leadership of someone else. The reason obscure laws or unorthodox interpretations are used is because if they say "screw it, all power to me" and ditch the rulebook (the constitution) alltogether, then it is a legitimate free-for-all for everyone, meaning their seats are contested as well. They want to get to the top of the pyramid without bringing it down.

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[[folder: Western Animation ]]

* In ''Literature/DragonBones'', Ward is told that a slave has fled to his land, Hurog, and is hiding somewhere under the castle. The nobles who lost the slave would like to get her back, but Ward tells them that there is no slave, invoking an ancient law that says that a slave who sets foot on Hurog land is automatically free. Ward's father and grandfater were jerks who would have happily assisted the nobles in their search for the escaped slaves, but Ward decides to revive the tradition. The nobles are quite annoyed.

* In the 2004 U.S. presidential election, a Minnesota electoral college voter pledged to Democratic candidate John Kerry voted instead for Kerry's running-mate, John Edwards to be president. It's still unclear whether this was intentional or not, but the state legislature responded to this by changing electoral college votes to being public instead of anonymous, and barring electors from voting for candidates other than whom they were officially pledged. Come the 2016 election, another Minnesota elector tried to vote for Bernie Sanders instead of UsefulNotes/HillaryClinton (who had come dangerously close to being the first Democratic candidate to lose the state in 32 years), but thanks to the change in state law, was unable to do so.

* In ''Videogame/FalloutNewVegas'', one of the rules of the Brotherhood of Steel is "The chain that Binds", ensures that the chain of command within the Brotherhood is always adhered. It's mostly just invoked when a lower ranked member is insubordinate to a higher ranked one, but it also requires those of superior rank not to give orders to those who do not report directly to them, which you can use against Elder [=MacNamara=] if you decide to support Paladin Hardin's attempt to replace him.

* In the last years of the WeimarRepublic none of the governments had a positive parliamentary majority behind them. However, the chancellor was appointed by the President and the President was allowed to make "Emergency Orders" (Notverordnungen) under Article 48 of the Weimar constitution. While they could be thrown out by a majority of the parliament voting against them, the President also had the power to dissolve the parliament at any point he pleased and call new elections. When parliament was not in session, the Emergency Orders could not be voided by it and hence Brüning, von Papen and Schleicher (the last three chancellors before Hitler) could in essence govern without parliament so long as the President supported their agenda. This backfired ''hard'' and the Nazis got more and more votes until eventually (after the Nazis got 45% of the vote and could get a majority with a coalition with another far right party) President Hindenburg appointed Hitler chancellor. Hitler proceeded to introduce and pass a law giving him the power to make any laws he wished, including those going against letter and spirit of the constitution. The question of whether the "AintNoRule" justification the Nazis used was legit has never been conclusively answered, but suffice to say the constitution of UsefulNotes/TheBonnRepublic and UsefulNotes/TheBerlinRepublic (which is the same document in essence) is anally retentive about none of that ever happening ever again.

* In ''By the Sword'' by Creator/MercedesLackey, there's an old rule that says that a mercenary company that has lost enough members can call the Captaincy to vote. The Captain of the Skybolts, Ardana, gets the boot after a disastrous campaign.

* Keith Olbermann makes a point that "Merkle's [[HaveAGayOldTime boner]]", a famous mistake by a rookie in 1908 that won the Cubs the Pennant and ultimately their last world series to date was this. See [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9QVcGJwiO54 this video]]

* Prior to the treaty of Lisbon there was no rule for leaving the EU (which is not to say it did not happen, both Greenland and the former French territory that is now Algeria were technically part of predecessors of the EU at some point in time), however that treaty explicitly introduced a rule, mostly summed up in article 50. Article 50 establishes that whatever the new relationship between the former EU member and the "rest-EU" is going to be has to be negotiated within two years, otherwise the new relationship will be the "default" of the EU relations to any non-EU country with no special rights or obligations. However, there is a way around the two year deadline, as Britain showed in light of the "Brexit" vote. The referendum ''technically'' being non-binding, Article 50 is not triggered until Parliament (the only body in Britain that can make laws) ''explicitly'' makes a law to leave the EU under article 50. And there AintNoRule that they have to do it ''now'' - or at any point from now until the sun terns into a red giant. So while Article 50 as originally worded provides for a (in political terms) quick and clean divorce, a loophole nobody seems to have foreseen enables countries to leave and not leave the EU at the same time. Whether or not this was intentional on the part of any involved politician [[RuleOfCautiousEditingJudgment is best discussed elsewhere]].

This is distinct from LoopholeAbuse, which deals with getting around the rules, while this deals with following them, but there can be overlap when invoking one rule allows someone to get around another.

* In the last years of the WeimarRepublic none of the governments had a positive parliamentary majority behind them. However, the chancellor was appointed by the President and the President was allowed to make "Emergency Orders" (Notverordnungen) under Article 48 of the Weimar constitution. While they could be thrown out by a majority of the parliament voting against them, the President also had the power to dissolve the parliament at any point he pleased and call new elections. When parliament was not in session, the Emergency Orders could not be voided by it and hence Brüning, von Papen and Schleicher (the last three chancellors before Hitler) could in essence govern without parliament so long as the President supported their agenda. This backfired ''hard'' and the Nazis got more and more votes until eventually (after the Nazis got 45% of the vote and could get a majority with a coalition with another far right party) President Hindenburg appointed Hitler chancellor. Hitler proceeded to introduce and pass a law giving him the power to make any laws he wished, including those going against letter and spirit of the constitution. The question of whether the "AintNoRule" justification the Nazis used was legit has never been conclusively answered, but suffice to say the constitution of TheBonnRepublic and TheBerlinRepublic (which is the same document in essence) is anally retentive about none of that ever happening ever again.

!Examples

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* In ''Literature/ABrothersPrice'', such a rule is part of the villains' plan. They hire someone else to [[spoiler: kidnap Jerin]], so that they can then steal [[spoiler: Jerin]] back from the criminals they hired, invoking a law that says that they're then allowed to keep [[spoiler: the man they rescued from his kidnappers]], as a reward for their victory over the criminals. Of course, for this to work, the hired helpers have to be killed (as the rule wouldn't apply if it was known everything was planned by one and the same family) but the villains show no remorse about this.
* In ''Literature/DragonBones'', Ward is told that a slave has fled to his land, Hurog, and is hiding somewhere under the castle. The nobles who lost the slave would like to get her back, but Ward tells them that there is no slave, invoking an ancient law that says that a slave who sets foot on Hurog land is automatically free. Ward's father and grandfater were jerks who would have happily assisted the nobles in their search for the escaped slaves, but Ward decides to revive the tradition. The nobles are quite annoyed.

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[[AC:Politics]]

* In the last years of the WeimarRepublic none of the governments had a positive parliamentary majority behind them. However, the chancellor was appointed by the President and the President was allowed to make "Emergency Orders" (Notverordnungen) under Article 48 of the Weimar constitution. While they could be thrown out by a majority of the parliament voting against them, the President also had the power to dissolve the parliament at any point he pleased and call new elections. When parliament was not in session, the Emergency Orders could not be voided by it and hence Brüning, von Papen and Schleicher (the last three chancellors before Hitler) could in essence govern without parliament so long as the President supported their agenda. This backfired ''hard'' and the Nazis got more and more votes until eventually (after the Nazis got 45% of the vote and could get a majority with a coalition with another far right party) President Hindenburg appointed Hitler chancellor. Hitler proceeded to introduce and pass a law giving him the power to make any laws he wished, including those going against letter and spirit of the constitution. The question of whether the "AintNoRule" justification the Nazis used was legit has never been conclusively answered, but suffice to say the constitution of TheBonnRepublic and TheBerlinRepublic (which is the same document in essence) is anally retentive about none of that ever happening ever again.

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* In one episode of ''WesternAnimation/TheJetsons'', Cogswell bribes a crooked commissioner to enforce the B.E.B.O.P law (Basic Electro Bionic Operations Permit) as part of a plan to shutdown Spacely's factory to prevent him from making a million sprockets for his millionth cog ([[ObstructiveBureacrat the paperwork needed for Spacely to go back online would take four weeks]]). One of the side effects of the trick was that Rosie had to marry Mack to prevent him from being melted down.

* In the last years of the WeimarRepublic none of the governments had a positive parliamentary majority behind them. However, the chancellor was appointed by the President and the President was allowed to make "Emergency Orders" (Notverordnungen) under Article 48 of the Weimar constitution. While they could be thrown out by a majority of the parliament voting against them, the President also had the power to dissolve the parliament at any point he pleased and call new elections. When parliament was not in session, the Emergency Orders could not be voided by it and hence Brüning, von Papen and Schleicher (the last three chancellors before Hitler) could in essence govern without parliament so long as the President supported their agenda. This backfired ''hard'' and the Nazis got more and more votes until eventually (after the Nazis got 45% of the vote and could get a majority with a coalition with another far right party) President Hindenburg appointed Hitler chancellor. Hitler proceeded to introduce and pass a law giving him the power to make any laws he wished, including those going against letter and spirit of the constitution. The question of whether the "AintNoRule" justification the Nazis used was legit has never been conclusively answered, but suffice to say the constitution of the BonnRepublic and the BerlinRepublic (which is the same document in essence) is anally retentive about none of that ever happening ever again.