Edge of the Law

1. Same trade, different legal standing

   Street vendors doing the same work on the same streets can sit on opposite sides of the law: some hold the right to practise their trade and others do not. What separates them is permission, not the work itself, so the vendor's daily relationship with the law is an ongoing tangle rather than a clean in-or-out.

2. Street selling is mainstream work

   Selling on the street is not a fringe activity at the edges of a city's economy. In a major city it makes up a significant share of the whole workforce, so how the law treats these sellers shapes the livelihoods of a large part of the population.

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