Sects, Cults, and the Attack on Jurisprudence / Freemen, Sovereign Citizens, and the Challenge to Public Order in British Heritage Countries

Stephen A. Kent and Robin D. Willey; “Sects, Cults, and the Attack on Jurisprudence” and “Freemen, Sovereign Citizens, and the Challenge to Public Order in British Heritage Countries

The authors group the OPCA phenomenon with religious cults. Both share a distance and disdain for government and court structures as a consequence of their beliefs. This ideologically-grounded hostility leads to both legal and extralegal efforts to pressure and exhaust government and court actors who are perceived as enemies. That makes these groups a security threat. Kent has subsequently concluded that although OPCA litigants “have no chance of receiving legal recognition” they are an important group for study because they are “profoundly alienated from society.” This dangerous separation in the world perspectives of OPCA adherents and the remainder of society is not only a threat to government and court operation, but simply the waste of people’s lives.

Click to access sects-cults-and-the-attack-on-jurisprudence-2013.pdf

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