On a website collecting aphorisms, we find:
In Deutschland ist alles verboten, was nicht erlaubt ist;
in England ist alles erlaubt, was nicht verboten ist;
in Rußland ist alles erlaubt, was verboten ist.Rudolf von Jhering –– (1818–1892), deutscher Rechtswissenschaftler, erster Vertreter eines juristischen Naturalismus, der das Recht kausalgesetzlich aus der Wirklichkeit der Gesellschaft erklärt
Translation:
In Germany everything that is not allowed is forbidden;
in England everything is allowed that is not forbidden;
in Russia everything is allowed that is forbidden.
This is a popular saying, quoted here
In Germany everything that is not allowed is forbidden.
In England everything is allowed that is not forbidden.
In France everything is allowed, even if it is forbidden.
and in Russia everything is forbidden, even if it is allowed.
More generally:
In democracies everything non-prohibited is allowed.
In an authoritarian regime, everything that is not allowed is prohibited.
And in totalitarian regimes, everything that is not prohibited is compulsory. (src, compare)
And
In Austria everything is allowed, whether it is forbidden or not.
The jocular saying is that,
in England, "everything which is not forbidden is allowed",
while, in Germany, the opposite applies, so "everything which is not allowed is forbidden".
This may be extended to France – "everything is allowed even if it is forbidden" –
and Russia where "everything is forbidden, even that which is expressly allowed".
While in North Korea it is said that "everything that is not forbidden is compulsory" (Wikipedia)
But
In France everything that is not forbidden is allowed.
In Germany everything that is not allowed is automatically forbidden.
In Italy everything is allowed, even if expressly forbidden.
If something's illegal in Australia, you do it to find out why. (src)
This is obviously a joke with some flexibility in attributing absurdities in comparing other countries law systems.
The first source attributes this to prominent lawyer Jhering, but it is also recorded as a bon mot among law students in Germany. As Aphorismen doesn't give a proper source, and single elements may be found earlier, I wonder whether the source attribution is really truthful.
Did Jhering say or write that? Was he the first to use this chiastic construction of principles to compare general attitudes towards laws in different countries?