kosmos: Sovereign citizen movement

Evidence: 100 • authority: 72

The sovereign citizen movement (sometimes abbreviated as SovCits) is a loose group of anti-government activists, conspiracy theorists, vexatious litigants, tax protesters and financial scammers found mainly in English-speaking common law countries—the United States, Canada, Australia, the United Kingdom, and New Zealand. Sovereign citizens have a pseudolegal belief system based on misinterpretations of common law, and claim not to be subject to any government statutes unless they consent to them. The movement appeared in the U.S. in the early 1970s and has since expanded to other countries; the similar freeman on the land movement emerged during the 2000s in Canada before spreading to other…

Evidence: 42 • authority: 88

31. High Court Jurisdiction in Arbitration Claims. This chapter addresses High Court jurisdiction in arbitration claims. Intervention by the courts in arbitrations is restricted to those situations allowed by the Arbitration Act 1996. These include situations where the judicial system can offer support to the arbitral process to make it effective and to correct obvious injustices. Applications in support of the arbitral process include applications relating to the appointment of arbitrators and procedural orders to secure evidence for use in arbitrations. Ultimately, judicial review of arbitral awards is strictly restricted. The main provisions deal with serious irregularities and appeals o…

Evidence: 42 • authority: 88

The Concerning Intersections of Sovereign Citizen and Indigenous Sovereignty Claims. In Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand, the influence of sovereign citizen pseudolaw on Indigenous sovereignty advocacy is increasingly visible. Such influence was apparent in the referendum on an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice and COVID-19 protests. It also recurs in legal claims and native title disputes. These developments are concerning. In this article, we explain how sovereign citizen pseudolaw damages Indigenous peoples and communities, including by undermining their efforts to obtain state recognition of their laws and threatening the prospect of broader political reform. To make this ar…

Evidence: 42 • authority: 72

Subject-matter jurisdiction, also called jurisdiction ratione materiae, is a legal doctrine regarding the ability of a court to lawfully hear and adjudicate a case. Subject-matter relates to the nature of a case; whether it is criminal, civil, whether it is a state issue or a federal issue, and other substantive features of the case. Courts must have subject-matter jurisdiction over the particular case in order to hear it. A court is given the ability to hear a case by a foundational document, usually a Constitution. Courts are granted either general jurisdiction or limited jurisdiction, depending on their type. For example, in the US, state courts have general jurisdiction over the affairs…

Evidence: 38 • authority: 80

Admiralty Jurisdiction, Maritime Claims, Liens and Sovereign Immunity

Evidence: 38 • authority: 72

Sovereign immunity, or crown immunity, is a legal doctrine whereby a sovereign or state cannot commit a legal wrong and is immune from civil suit or criminal prosecution, strictly speaking in modern texts in its own courts. State immunity is a similar, stronger doctrine, that applies to foreign courts.

Evidence: 36 • authority: 88

The Jurisdiction of the Court of Federal Claims and Forum-Shopping in Money Claims Against the Federal Government. Over the past decade, the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit has issued a series of opinions clarifying the jurisdictional priority of the Court of Federal Claims (CFC) under the Tucker Act over claims against the United States that are means to a monetary end, even if cleverly or mistakenly drafted as suits for injunctive or declaratory relief under the Administrative Procedure Act (APA) that could be filed in District Court. Because the APA expressly excludes judicial review in District Court when an “adequate remedy” lies in another court, the CFC retains…

Evidence: — • authority: 88

Prefigurative Neoliberalism: A Provisional Analysis of the Global Sovereign Citizen Movement. Much contemporary research on prefigurative legality turns to left-leaning activists for ethnographic insights into practices that call forward an alternative legal world. We turn instead to a right-leaning movement commonly known by scholars as the Pseudolaw movement-or self-named (by some involved) as the sovereign citizen movement-filled with loosely affiliated groups that share a common ideological approach to law. We discuss the underlying logics motivating sovereign citizens' practices, discussing how a nostalgically based form of prefiguration shapes sovereign citizens' responses to contempo…

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The Government of the People's Republic of Bangladesh (Bengali: গণপ্রজাতন্ত্রী বাংলাদেশ সরকার, romanized: Gônoprojātantri Bānglādēsh Sarkār) is the central government of Bangladesh. It administers the country through the executive, legislative and judicial branches, together with constitutional bodies, statutory authorities, the civil service and local-government institutions. The constitutional framework of the government is established by the Constitution of Bangladesh, adopted on 4 November 1972 and brought into force on 16 December 1972. The Constitution declares Bangladesh a unitary, independent and sovereign republic and establishes the supremacy of the Constitution and the rule of la…

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In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its sovereignty with the federal government. Due to this shared sovereignty, Americans are citizens both of the federal republic and of the state in which they reside. State citizenship and residency are flexible, and no government approval is required to move between states, except for persons restricted by certain types of court orders, such as paroled convicts and children of divorced spouses who share child custody. State governments in the U.S. are allocate…

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The federal government of the United States (U.S. federal government or U.S. government) is the national government of the United States. The United States federal government is composed of three distinct branches: legislative, executive, and judicial. The powers of these three branches are defined and vested by the Constitution of the United States, which has been in effect since 1789. The powers and duties of these branches are further defined by acts of Congress, including the creation of executive departments and courts subordinate to the Supreme Court of the United States. In the federal division of power, the federal government shares sovereignty with each of the 50 states in their re…

Evidence: — • authority: 72

The Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act of 1976 (FSIA) is a United States law, codified at Title 28, §§ 1330, 1332, 1391(f), 1441(d), and 1602–1611 of the United States Code, that established criteria as to whether a foreign sovereign state (or its political subdivisions, agencies, or instrumentalities) is immune from the jurisdiction of the United States' federal or state courts. The Act also establishes specific procedures for service of process, attachment of property and execution of judgment in proceedings against a foreign state. The FSIA provides the exclusive basis and means to bring a civil suit against a foreign sovereign in the United States. It was signed into law by United States…