COMMENT | “What you don’t know won’t hurt you,” goes the adage. But in law, the opposite is true: ignorantia juris non excusat - ignorance of the law excuses no one.

Fair enough. You cannot plead ignorance to escape liability, but what happens when the law itself is so disconnected from common sense that ordinary people break it without even knowing?

What happens when the very official invoking that law has his own credibility issues?

Here is my problem. Since the government introduced controls on petrol subsidies last September, I have been regularly breaking the law.

Not deliberately...