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Item Law #22

Restrictions on Using Time to Avoid Obeying Item Laws

1. Items crafted in the past for the express purpose of avoiding laws must adhere to all laws in the future. (As ruled in Item Law Makers Guild v. Grandfather Claus)
2. An item maker may not travel to the future to ascertain which laws will exist, nor may the item maker use knowledge of laws in the present to go to the past and craft items in violation of these laws.
3. As the composition of all future laws is unknown at any time in the past or present, the item maker must assume that future laws will prohibit the crafting of the item in question.
4. Should an item maker feel they have been unfairly prosecuted for a law that may or may not exist in the future, an appeal may be made to the Item Law Makers Guild.
1. This appeal must be made in the present, regardless of whether the item was crafted in the past, present, or future.

Notes

This is commonly known as "Catch-22" after the number of the law. You can't build an item that violates a future law, but you can't go into the future and figure out what they are, nor can you go into the past and avoid future laws. The law is not widely enforced as the number of appeals to the ILMG would get out of hand.