I am a big fan of street art and one of my favorite past times is to explore old Kuwaiti buildings looking for graffiti, taking photos and maybe collecting old bullets from the gulf war. But is it a crime to walk into old deserted buildings that the owner has neglected? Is it vandalism to tag those walls? Do the owners even know they are the owners?
I have to be honest, this topic is not something widely discussed in law school or at the office and I have never heard of a private law that discusses these matters, all I know of is the Kuwaiti Penal Law (yeah yeah yeah, the one with Rupees) include the rules for vandalism and trespassing. So let us look at the laws together:
1) Street Art or Vandalism?
First thing first, if you’re planning to tag a building you need to keep the following in mind. The building must not be a prayer place, a public office, a governmental building or a school building. The building should be abandoned with no one living in it or no one intending to fix it up to live in it (For example the amazing parking lot in old Salmiya and most of Failika island). I am also assuming your art is not just two circles with a pointy long oval in the middle.
If you want your canvas to be a new apartment complex or a mexican restaurant or a bookstore, then do what the amazing Monstariam does; get written consent from the owners first. Otherwise if the building has half a floor knocked off, no ceiling and 300 bullets have gone through it, then enjoy it. Just don’t be offensive please.
2) Exploring or Trespassing?
Article 254 and 255 both talk about entering buildings/trespassing owned by other people, but they also claim that the buildings should be in a possession of another person or inhabited by a person or is being prepared from someone to live in; and so the places that Mark (and I) have visited or intend to visit do not fall under those two articles.
PS: Does anyone have any creative ideas I could use with my collected bullets, please don’t tell me necklace.
Post by Fajer Ahmed – Legal Counsel
Have a Kuwait law related question? Email me at [email protected]
The legal opinions expressed in this post are those of the author Fajer. Opinions expressed by Mark or any other writer on mark248am1.wpenginepowered.com are those of the individual’s and in no way reflect Fajer’s opinion.
13 replies on “Kuwait Law: Street Art and Abandoned Buildings”
collected bullets… chess set? https://www.werd.com/page/237/
you just gave me an idea!
you get +5 points (sorry I have to be stingy, but I only have been given +247 points from the readers, so far!)
Use the bullet casings to create a super mario sculpture. It may take forever but boy would be a nice center piece on your coffee table. https://thatswhatido.fr/instaldouille.html#super-mario
Wear them as a moustache.
Get a fake stuffed animal’s head and glue the bullets to its mouth(it has to have an open mouth)and then your fake stuffed head looks like it has razor-sharp teeth!
finally a law post worth reading…
about the bullets:
1. sell them as gulf war remains
2. donate to a museum
3. create some type of object and call it art, many people will praise you.
4. paper weight
5. eat them
6. do a prank…
i like you, already
Thanks for the info, but considering the amount of construction going on right now we are lucky to trespass such properties regardless of the objective we carried upon while doing that.
The only thing which is still clicking in my mind is the Rupees.
Something tells me this rule has never been altered since the time Kuwait traded in rupees.
-Still waiting for your explanation.
Well Thanks for the Law info…
For the Bullet case…. if you want to show off..
You can have a militry type mobile cover and use this bullet as a mobile pandent.
I love these law posts.
make it as a necklace… 🙂
You can use the bullets as secret compartments to hide small things for emergency.
– 20 KD rolled up bill
– A paper note that contains important info about your dog or cat in case they run off.
You can use the bullet to create art pieces
You can flat out the bullet and create a metallic piece in which you can use it as positive and negative in creating a make shift AA battery holder to power up any device.
You can create a make shift whistle or a metal harmonica.
You can use the bullets to create windchimes which you can hang out in the front of your door.
You are only limited to your own imagination.
The lawyer’s defense arguments are ridiculous. You would be laughed out of court and your client would be paying those rupees.