How ‘sovereign citizens’ around the world draw on similar pseudo-law arguments – podcast

In the remote mountain high country of the Australian state of Victoria, police are continuing a huge manhunt. The fugitive is Dezi Freeman, a man alleged to have killed two police officers and injured a third in late August in the town of Porepunkah, 300km northeast of Melbourne.

Freeman identifies as a sovereign citizen, someone who believes they are not subject to the law.

Australia is no stranger to such beliefs. In the 1970s, the self-styled Prince Leonard, a disgruntled wheat farmer, declared himself head of a “micronation” called the Principality of Hutt River, which became a curiosity and tourist attraction.

 In this episode of The Conversation Weekly podcast, criminologist Keiran Hardy from Griffith University in Australia, who is studying sovereign citizens in Australia, tracks the origins of the movement back to the 1970s in the US:

It was probably the melding of two things: an anti-tax protest in a time of recession and a local militia group with far-right views that really bred into this sovereign citizen or pseudo-law movement, which has quite a lot of similarities across countries.

Listen to the conversation with Keiran Hardy on The Conversation Weekly podcast.

This episode of The Conversation Weekly was written and produced by Mend Mariwany and Gemma Ware with assistance from Katie Flood. Mixing and sound design by Eloise Stevens and theme music by Neeta Sarl.

Newclips in this episode from SBS News, 7News Australia, A Current Affair, EyeWitness News ABC7NY, NBC News, 10 News and The Indian Express.

Listen to The Conversation Weekly via any of the apps listed above, download it directly via our RSS feed or find out how else to listen here. A transcript of this episode is available on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.