Cartan's theorem states that any topologically closed subgroup of a Lie group is a Lie subgroup. 

This leads us to ask the following question:
>Can we replace "topologically closed" with a different topological property and achieve the same result? For instance, is a semi-locally simply connected subgroup of a Lie group a Lie subgroup?  Is a locally connnected and semi-locally simply connected subgroup of a Lie group a Lie subgroup?

Some observations:
An arcwise connected subgroup of a Lie group is not always an embedded Lie subgroup. For instance, consider the following example taken from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lie_subgroup:

"...take G to be a torus of dimension ≥ 2, and let H be a one-parameter subgroup of irrational slope, i.e. one that winds around in G. Then there is a Lie group homomorphism φ : R → G with H as its image. The closure of H will be a sub-torus in G."

This example is an arc-wise connected (but not locally connected) subgroup of a Lie group that is not a Lie subgroup. The issue is that in the definition of a Lie subgroup you require that the subgroup be nice with respect to the subset topology, in order for the Lie subgroup to be an embedded submanifold. See the section on embedded submanifolds in

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Submanifold

So whatever topological constraint we use to replace "closed" it has to be stronger than arcwise-connectedness.