'Pseudolaw and the illusion of legal meaning' by Joe McIntyre in (2025) Alternative Law Journal states
This article is an overview of the contemporary phenomenon of pseudolaw and argues that, at its heart, it involves a mistaking of the form of legal argumentation for its substance. Essentially, through the use of legalistic language, archaic sources and strange rituals, an illusion of legal meaning is created which tricks users into believing their actions are legally meaningful. This article argues that it shares common features with generative AI, in that it produces an illusion of meaning which users mistake for actual meaning. It then explores this juxtaposition and its implications for responses to pseudolaw.
Anyone who has spent extended time in Australian courts in the last five years will be familiar with the very strange phenomenon that is pseudolaw. A confident, assertive, self-represented litigant will rise to make their appearance only to argue the judge has no authority as the court is displaying the wrong coat of arms; or they will assert they are a ‘natural person’ not subject to the law; or they argue that the judge has somehow committed treason. A vivid illustration is provided in the case of Georganas v Georganas, when a pseudolaw ‘guru’ interceded from the public gallery:
Unknown Speaker: Stand down … Judge [X], you are concealing treason against the King of England … you are now charged, you are under arrest … You are trading in necromancy, you are treating dead people in this courtroom. You are in treason. You are in treason, you must stand down under the Bill of Rights now.
These types of arguments are, of course, without any legal merit. They do not work, and are rightly regarded as ‘obvious nonsense’, ‘pseudo-legal gibberish’, or ‘gobbledygook’. Yet these forms of argument continue to proliferate, with a significant growth seen in the years since the COVID-19 pandemic. This is no longer a fringe concern: such matters are now occurring on a daily basis in Australian courts, and in some jurisdictions is already being seen to profoundly reshape litigation.
Courts are busy places, and pseudolaw can be particularly disruptive, not least because of the disproportionate impact of each pseudolaw case compared to other cases. The case law involving pseudolaw matters commonly includes statements of judicial concern about the systemic impact of such cases. For example, in Rossiter v Adelaide City Council, Livesey J observed that pseudolegal arguments have ‘without reservation been rejected as involving both legal nonsense and an unnecessary waste of scarce public and judicial resources.’ The burden of dealing with pseudolaw matters is having a profound impact on the courts. As one judicial officer put it:
It uses up so much court resources because every time they want to file something they end up making the lives of the Registry staff miserable. [The clerk’s] email inbox … [is] full of emails from them. They have changed the whole face of the civil justice system.
In this article, I provide an overview of the contemporary phenomenon of pseudolaw and argue that – at its heart – it involves a mistaking of the form of legal argumentation for its substance. Essentially, through the use of legalistic language, archaic sources and strange rituals, an illusion of legal of meaning is created which tricks users into believing their actions are legally meaningful. That these users lack legal literacy, are largely alienated from the law, and desperately want to believe in the promise of pseudolaw means that this illusion is difficult to displace. I argue, however, that it is critical the scale and nature of this threat to the good administration of justice is recognised and countered – not least because it is quickly merging with another emerging phenomenon, the use of generative AI (‘GenAI’), which shares many of these same characteristics.
This article briefly draws out the similarities between GenAI and pseudolaw, with the goal of helping the reader better understand both phenomena. Unfortunately, the collision between GenAI and pseudolaw is already beginning to disrupt our courts, and it is increasingly necessary that we are all familiar with the contours of both the overlap between them and their impact upon the administration of justice.
Ultimately, I argue that – as amusing as some of the examples may be – pseudolaw itself is no laughing matter. It is, as I have written elsewhere, ‘disrupting our courts … threatening our judicial officers and administrators [and] harming all who come into contact with it.’ The same is true on the increasing use of GenAI in litigation – it can appear humorous, but is increasingly problematic. As these two phenomena collide, it is critical we stop laughing and start learning.
'The Impact of Pseudolaw on Local Government' by Stephen Young and Harry Hobbs in (2025) 36(4) Public Law Review comments
The COVID-19 pandemic saw a significant rise in the number of people making pseudolegal arguments in an effort to avoid public health measures. Legal scholarship exploring this phenomenon has largely focused on its impact on the administration of justice. However, as the level of government closest to the community, local governments have also faced a growing strain from pseudolegal adherents and conspiracy theorists. In this article, we explore their (misuse) of law and its impact on local government in Australia and New Zealand. We find three main impacts. Pseudolegal adherents have: attempted to construct parallel governance institutions as a means to exert power and control; intimidated and harassed local government authorities by issuing threats and disrupting public meetings; and, imposed a substantial administrative burden on staff by inundating offices with baseless correspondence. While pseudolaw may seem like obscure or picayune legal quirkiness, its impact on local government is anything but minor—it constitutes a growing threat to governance, public safety, and the rule of law. ...
In May 2024, Lance Vervoort, Chief Executive Officer of the Hamilton City Council, received a letter submitted as part of a Local Government Official Information and Meetings Act 1987 (NZ) (‘LGOIMA’) request. The letter contained excerpts from the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act 1990 (NZ), the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (‘ICCPR’), and the 1947 Nuremberg Code. The excerpts were liberally annotated with explanations such as, ‘New Zealand became a member of the ICCPR 1978 and being INTERNATIONAL LAW, it supersedes all Legislation’. The letter explained further that these ‘are VERYY [sic] IMPORTANT DOCUMENTS which all peoples should be aware of, but most people aren’t’. The author of the letter asserted that Hamilton City Council is breaching international law because it is illegally conducting medical experiments on the people of Hamilton by fluoridating drinking water. The author declared that the obligation to follow the law is based on consent freely given. As he had not consented to fluoridation, the Council is operating criminally.
Almost every legal claim in the letter is wrong. In New Zealand (and Australia), international law does not automatically supersede domestic legislation; the relationship between the state and its citizens is not based on contract; and a duly enacted law applies regardless of whether a person consents to its operation. The veracity of the factual claims is no better. Fluoride is a naturally occurring compound that is found in almost all fresh water. Fluoridation is the addition of fluoride to drinking water to protect against tooth decay, a well-established public health measure with decades of evidence demonstrating that it effectively improves oral health. The legal basis for fluoridation in New Zealand is also sound. Prior to 2021, the judiciary consistently found that local governments possessed the legal authority to fluoridate water. Since 2021, amendments to the Public Health Act 1956 (NZ) have made the position even clearer. Under s 116E of the Act, the Director-General may direct a local authority to add fluoride to its drinking water. Even if Mr Vervoort agreed with the author of the letter, he has no power to counteract a direction and remove fluoride. In any event, as this example demonstrates, concerns around fluoridation are often mixed with conspiracy theory and pseudolaw, such as the claim that it ‘removes freedom of choice by consumers’. The result is that any potentially meritorious legal questions are buried among voluminous and incoherent claims.
The letter did not clearly ask a question of the council. Nonetheless, because it was filed as a LGOIMA request, the Hamilton City Council was required by law to respond. While the Council’s response was short, merely explaining that it was following the laws and regulations of New Zealand, it necessitated time, attention and resources that might have been better placed elsewhere. One strange letter is not a problem. However, this is just one of many conspiracy and pseudolaw-inflected LGOIMAs that the Council has responded to in the last few years. Hamilton is not alone. Local governments across New Zealand and Australia increasingly face administrative burdens derived from pseudolegal conspiracies. In some cases, they also face intimidation, threats and a real risk of physical harm.
This is not new to those working in local government. The growing legal literature on pseudolaw and sovereign citizens, however, largely focuses on the origins, spread and manifestation of pseudolegal beliefs worldwide and their impact on law and the administration of justice rather than on the burdens it imposes on local government authorities. Similarly, while scholars in other disciplines examine pseudolaw through the lens of conspiracy theorising, extremism, criminal justice, and linguistics, there remains a dearth of study of pseudolegal adherents’ impact on local government. This is especially concerning now that pseudolaw has a ‘global reach’, having ‘migrated across the common law world and appear[ing] also in arrange of civil law countries’. We address this lacuna in this article. We focus specifically on its impact on local governments in Australia and New Zealand. Our study allows us to identify that pseudolaw is affecting local government in several significant ways. Furthermore, it reveals that although the impact is felt similarly across jurisdictions, the conduct of adherents manifests itself in diverse styles as pseudolaw evolves and adapts as it migrates. Pseudolaw in Australia and New Zealand has latched onto local legal, political and moral issues and arguments, including those based on the rights of Indigenous peoples.
Our article is divided into two substantive parts. Recognising that pseudolaw remains an understudied phenomenon, in Part II, we contextualise our subject. We explain what pseudolaw is, orient our article in the wider legal literature, and provide background to understand what is occurring in New Zealand and Australia. In Part III, we explore the three primary impacts pseudolaw and sovereign citizens have on local government in Australia and New Zealand. First, adherents are establishing alternative and parallel governance institutions, including ‘Common Law Courts’ to enforce their vision of society. Second, members of these groups threaten and intimidate elected councillors and council staff by serving warrants and judgments issued from their fake courts and disrupting public meetings. Third, members waste the time and resources of local government by abusing local government obligations and by refusing to pay for services. Ultimately, the costs of responding to pseudolegal claims are more than financial — they represent a broader erosion of public institutions and a challenge to democratic governance.
