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That's been the practice since Roman times.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ignorantia_juris_non_excusat

That was a reasonable principle up to about a century ago, when statutory law started growing out of control and drowning out other more stable and sensible sources of law.

When legislatures churn out volumes and volumes of bills every single year, "ignorantia juris non excusat" non excusat.

On top of that, what ever happened to mens rea being a necessary element of culpability? Why are all of these malum prohibitum laws strict liability offences?

Kafka wrote something about that ;)

Go read it in a book, or consult a lawyer and pose questions to him/her. Most cities and countries operate free law libraries where you can peruse these topics in as much detail as you care to. Like most things these days, it's incredibly easy to look it up online if you don't feel like going to a library.

An excellent question. Basically, the law is absurd and horrible in almost every conceivable way, and designing a system of law that is otherwise is nontrivial.