Until now, though, existing Chinese labor laws have gone largely unenforced, which has further complicated the debate here.

The agrarian reforms, still in force, went tacitly unenforced.

However, drug testing can be wildly inconsistent and, in some instances, has gone unenforced.

It is about old-fashioned corruption - money taken for influence delivered and for trade policies changed - with laws long on the books going unenforced.

Although it is illegal in Cambodia for anyone under 18 to do "hazardous work," such laws go unenforced, local aid workers say.

They said a 1988 Federal court order barring anti-abortion protesters from blocking the entrances of clinics had also gone unenforced.

Instead, over time many state legislatures repealed the bans; in some states the laws remained on the books, but went largely unenforced.

Still, the law goes unenforced; among tribes like the Samburu, few families abide by it.

In many states pot laws went unenforced, resulting in de facto legalization.

Poland's old statute, promulgated under martial law in 1982, was even more restrictive, but it has gone unenforced since Communism fell.