ReNe: bylaw

There's a sign, visible from our window, and it reads: No Parking Any Time, bylaw 675-79.

It then occurred to us...

In Singapore, there are notices and signs everywhere, usually going "No XXX, by law", or "No XXX, by order". But by whose law? Whose order? If there's no specific reference to the authority that forbade this action, then who's going to enforce it? They might as well have put down, "No XXX". Full-stop. Why the need to appeal to some nebulous higher authority? (Well, that could be because people tend to obey even rules they do not like if that rule was enforced by some higher authority; case in point, the Milgram experiments.)

But I think what *probably* happened with Singapore is this: the formulaic notice started off as "some prohibition, bylaw prohibition reference number", so one knows under what section of the law this prohibition falls under. (A bylaw is a law by the municipal government or local government, by definition.)

Then some smart, or not-so-smart, alec in Singapore with powderful engrish decides that there should be a space between by and law because 'by law' does make sense and is more gramatically correct.... And what's the numbering at the back? Arh, let's just drop it. There, it looks neat now.