Abstract
Pseudolaw refers to the phenomenon whereby adherents adopt the forms and structures of legal argumentation while substituting the substantive content and underlying principles for a distinct parallel set of beliefs. These movements often confront courts with submissions that comprise seemingly random compilations or quotations of obscure, obsolete or irrelevant clauses from a wide variety of legal instruments. To the legal insider this is nonsense. But to the adherent of pseudolegal belief these represent the true understanding of the law.
This paper is the first mixed method analysis of the scale, nature and impact of pseduolaw in any Australian jurisdiction, and one globally unique in its use of interviews and linguistic analysis of this phenomenon. This paper builds upon a typology of pseudolegal argumentation developed by the authors in 2022 by aiming to provide a firm empirical foundation of just how this phenomenon is developing and affecting the judicial system in South Australia. The paper maps the rise of pseudolaw in the State through a combination of interviews with judges and administrators, and through the empirical coding of judicial decisions.