Law and conspiracy theory: sovereign citizens, freemen on the land, and pseudolaw.
This article examines the 'sovereign citizen' and 'freemen on the land' movements and the operation of 'pseudolaw'. Against a predominant judicial, governmental, and academic approach that portrays sovereign citizen beliefs as 'irrational' and 'nonsensical', I argue that such beliefs should be under...
| Published in: | Journal of Law & Society Vol. 52; no. 1; pp. 34 - 57 |
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| Format: | Article |
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Wiley-Blackwell
Mar2025
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| Online Access: | View this record in EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=hlh&AN=183953077&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: hlh uiTerm: 183953077 longDbName: Humanities International Complete uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: jinfo: jid: 0263323X 7Q3 jtl: Journal of Law & Society issn: 0263323X maglogo: Y pubinfo: dt: Mar2025 vid: 52 iid: 1 pid: 480 pub: Wiley-Blackwell artinfo: ui: 183953077 10.1111/jols.12523 ppf: 34 ppct: 23 formats: fmt: – @attributes: type: T – @attributes: type: P size: 268KB tig: atl: Law and conspiracy theory: sovereign citizens, freemen on the land, and pseudolaw. aug: au: KOCHI, TARIK affil: School of Law, Politics and Sociology, University of Sussex, Brighton, England su: Sovereign citizen movement Conspiracy theories Populism Nationalism Jurisprudence Neoliberalism Social problems sug: subj: Sovereign citizen movement Conspiracy theories Populism Nationalism Jurisprudence Neoliberalism Social problems ab: This article examines the 'sovereign citizen' and 'freemen on the land' movements and the operation of 'pseudolaw'. Against a predominant judicial, governmental, and academic approach that portrays sovereign citizen beliefs as 'irrational' and 'nonsensical', I argue that such beliefs should be understood in terms of conflicts within the socio‐historical production of 'legitimate' knowledge across the public sphere and popular culture. Conspiratorial sovereign citizen beliefs articulate, albeit very problematically, social concerns and suspicions in relation to transnational economic, political, and legal power. Further, such beliefs should be understood within the context of the rise to prominence and contemporary normalization of neoliberal, authoritarian populism, and a discourse of 'inverted oppression'. Through this, a range of anti‐egalitarian, ethno‐nationalist, and racist beliefs are hidden behind and justified via a conspiratorial worldview that uses a supposedly 'neutral' pseudolegal rhetoric to defend individual liberty against a perceived social reality constituted by ongoing and extreme oppression. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: Article src: R language: English refInfo: copyright: @attributes: flag: Y custom: Copyright of Journal of Law & Society is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites without the copyright holder's express written permission. Additionally, content may not be used with any artificial intelligence tools or machine learning technologies. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. item: Journal of Law & Society holder: Wiley-Blackwell dt: @attributes: year: 2025 holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
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