Originally Posted by cooker

I guess since we are beating the topic to death anyway, I will go another round. The difference is that that natural consequences occur independent of human discretion. If I jump off a building, I might die or I might not and it is out of anyone's control. And gravity certainly doesn't give you a second chance if you made an honest mistake. Also it treats you the same in all jurisdictions: the laws of physics are the same if you jump off the Louvre or the Guggenheim.

However, human-made laws are highly variable and inconsistent, so you could find yourself in a situation where you acted in what seemed like a perfectly responsible way, only to find yourself afoul of some bizarre local regulation. And in fact, judges still could use discretion and give you a break if you were an ignorant foreigner, like the English kindergarten teacher in the Sudan who didn't realize naming a Teddy Bear Mohammed after half the kids in her class would almost get her lynched, but ended up getting handed over the British consulate and pardoned after 8 days in jail. In fact, the "principal" of ignorance of the law being no excuse, is, paradoxically, probably mainly intended to be invoked when judges don't think you were ignorant, and are instead lying to try to get off.

So not a very good analogy.