Logo image
Back
How should Australia handle ‘sovereign citizens’ clogging the courts? A former magistrate explains
Magazine article   Open access

How should Australia handle ‘sovereign citizens’ clogging the courts? A former magistrate explains

David Heilpern
The Conversation
27/02/2026
DOI: https://doi.org/10.64628/AA.7hhs9vc6g
url
How should Australia handle ‘sovereign citizens’ clogging the courts?View
CC BY-ND V4.0,  Open

Metrics

1 Record Views

Abstract

Imagine sitting in a crowded local court in Australia, and this happens (names have been changed): Court officer: I call the matter of James Burnett JB: I am the personage known by that name but do not identify for the purposes of this court. Judge: Are you James Burnett? JB: I am known by that name but do not identify. I challenge the jurisdiction of this court as the Queen did not personally appoint you. The Magna Carta states that I am a “freemen of our realm for ourselves” and have “distrained to do more service for a knight’s fee or for any other free tenement than is due”. Judge: If you are not James Burnett, then I will assume that you are not in court, and will convict you of this traffic matter in your absence. JB: You cannot do that because the Royal Coat of Arms behind you means that it is English law I must answer to. Judge: Last chance – are you James Burnett? JB: Only for the purpose of this discourse and not in any legal or corporate sense without the capitalisation of my name. Judge: Do you plead guilty or not guilty to the charge of driving unregistered. JB: I was not driving, I was journeying, and to plead would consent to the corporate entity known as Corporatus Australis. I was the magistrate in this case, and it went on like this for 45 minutes. “James Burnett” is a so-called sovereign citizen, and cases like his are becoming more common in the courts. The group uses pseudo law – nonsense “law” that has no basis in fact– to obfuscate and frustrate judicial matters. In the process, they are clogging Australian courts, something I saw many times as a magistrate and now observe as a legal academic.

Details

Logo image