But there would be no protecting British savers, whose pensions would be damaged by the Brussels rules, wherever the Pru ends up - unless those rules are reformed before implementation in 2014.
Rules are pointless unless they have some practical effect in constraining governments.
Turkey kicked out Israel's ambassador, and still rules out reconciliation unless Israel apologises for the deaths and pays compensation to the victims' families.
ECONOMIST: Tests mount up for Turkey��s newly assertive foreign policy
But as the rules currently stand, unless an umpire requests a call from his colleagues, the others remain mum.
Michael Morpurgo, author of modern classics such as Private Peaceful, told BBC News he would not go into schools unless the rules were changed.
But it rules out devolving corporation tax unless it is also devolved to Scotland and Northern Ireland, national insurance, capital gains tax, VAT and fuel duty.
BBC: Commission calls for Welsh government income tax powers
The Senate begins its deliberations Tuesday behind closed doors, unless senators change the rules.
As a result another crash on the same scale as Wall Street is unlikely to happen, unless a bank breaks the rules.
The SEC is also considering rules that would prevent trades from occurring unless they fell within a certain range based on the security's current price.
ECONOMIST: The post mortem into the stockmarket slide of May 6th
The special rules that give the police extraordinary powers do not lapse unless Parliament expressly passes a resolution annulling the state of emergency.
Before the new SEC-mandated rules, marketmakers would often let limit orders pile up unexecuted unless the market rose or dropped to a point where they could get their accustomed spread.
And don't expect parity in the NFL anytime soon unless the league changes its salary cap and revenue sharing rules.
Unless the SEC and Financial Industry Regulatory Authority craft strong rules, Mr. Abshure said, a combination of fraud, high failure rates for startups and an "inevitable advertising onslaught of pie-in-the-sky offers" will kill investor confidence in buying shares online.
Under Premier League rules, one club is not allowed to give a player a medical unless his current club agree.
And unless Dodd-Frank is watered down, America could have problems meeting the global rules known as Basel 3 because they will rely more on ratings.
ECONOMIST: Reducing reliance on ratings is a worthy goal, but not easy
But Justice Department rules require that prosecutors notify ahead of time the media organization whose records are being sought, unless doing so would damage the investigation.
Among the displeased, supposedly, was Margaret Beckett, president of the Board of Trade: there were mutterings that unless the revised report proposed tougher disciplines on directors, the government might impose some rules of its own.
The SEC should be criticized severely for doing away with the uptick rule on short-selling--no shorting of a stock unless it has moved up in price--and for its failure to enforce rules against naked short-selling--requiring a short seller to first borrow a stock before he shorts it.
Second, it turns out that world-record speeds in racewalking are mathematically impossible, unless both feet are losing contact with the ground, which is a violation of the rules of the sport.
The current rules mean that any crop that's approved at EU level can be grown anywhere in the Union unless countries have specific scientific reasons for blocking it.
He said unless there was legislation to curb the number of special advisers and give legal force to the rules governing their conduct, the issue would continue to "fester" damaging both the government and the civil service.
Investigators are not supposed to consider a subpoena for journalists' phone records unless "all reasonable attempts" have been made to get the same information from other sources, the rules say.
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