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Originally Posted by Mithalwen
In Appendix B it says the edict is that "Men are not to enter the shire" which solves the Elf/Dwarf issue. I doubt that Elves would have taken any notice - and lets face it they had been passing discreetly through the shire for ages without anyone really taking much notice (apart from Bilbo and Frodo). Dwarves had been passing through more conspicuously but non threateningly I would say ( I mean people must have noticed Thorin and Co and the Dwarves who were around at the time of the party but I cannot think of any examples of anyone being overly disturbed by dwarves in transit. I imagine that most dwarves had removed from the Ered Luin to Erebor after the downfall of Smaug so I doubt they would be an issue either.
This leaves men - and to an extent how you interpret enter. My air travel tends to be planned at the last moment and the cheap options tend to involve changing planes and so I have an unenviable breadth of experience of transit lounges. So while I have physically been in (during the course of one journey!) Austria, Abu Dhabi, Singapore & Indonesia (2 airports!), I didn't actually legally enter another country after leaving the UK until the second stop in Australia. So I wonder if he meant enter and settle (remember how worried Butterbur was about people coming up from the south) rather than not allowed to pass through.
However I am suggesting this as a vague possibility rather than something I am convinced about - blame the fact that I am working for Lawyers at the moment that I am hypothesising that it is possible to interpret black as white!!!!
With regard to the roads, with the re-establishment of a settlement at Lake Evendim I expect roads would be re-established from both the end of the road from sarn Ford skirting the far downs, and from Fornost. Allowing most of the likely traffic to "by-pass" the Shire. However a strict "no men must set foot in the Shire" rule becomes more impracticable when the Westmarch is added to the shire and means a more lengthy (and hilly) detour left and right when the most direct route is straight on. It is really not a sensible way to run a kingdom having a self inflicted no-go area smack bang in the middle. So I have a suspicion that it is more a symbolic gesture than anything... like our own dear Queen being given a pair of ducks every time she sets foot in the Channel Islands
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Hmmm, I agree that neither the Elves or the Dwarves would've paid much notion to the edict ( I should note however that the fact that the Elves and Dwarves aren't part of the Reunited Kingdom doesn't necessarily mean that they can ignore it's laws while traveling through it's lands). Of course, the Elves are pretty much a non-factor in trading Middle-earth, so even if they were not allowed to enter it would not have much of an effect. The fact that the dwarves are allowed passage ensures that the Hobbits have at least some connection to the outside world, but it still leaves out the most prominent race of all: Men. Considering that the Fourth Age signals the beginning of the rule of Men shutting of the Shire would seem like a bad move.
As to the nature of the edict: In HoME IV , Sauron Defeated, there is an excerpt dealing with this. Sam receives a letter from Aragorn, stating that he is going to pay a visit to the Shire. In the letter Aragorn states he desires to meet his friends at the Brandywine river, for not even the King himself should break his own edicts (as Elianna pointed out). This passage clearly shows that even traveling through the Shire was forbidden to Men. I'm not sure how symbolic this was. It may be that the ban wasn't enforced that much, and that Aragorn was merely showing off in this case (Look at me! I'm such a benevolent and wise King that I even follow my own laws! Go me!). It is obvious that the development of New Arnor would be hindered massively if the Shire would've remained off-limits to all human traffic.