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"Freemen-on-the-land" are a loose group of individuals believing in a conspiracy theory that they are bound by statute laws only if they consent to those laws. They believe that they can therefore declare themselves independent of the government and the rule of law, holding that the only "true" law is their own interpretation of "common law". Freemen are mainly active in the United States and in other English-speaking countries: Canada, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand. In the Canadian court case ''Meads v. Meads'', Alberta Court of Queen's Bench Associate Chief Justice John D. Rooke used the phrase Organised Pseudolegal Commercial Arguments (OPCA) to describe the techniques and arguments used by freemen in court〔 describing them as frivolous and vexatious.〔(University of Calgary Faculty of Law )〕〔(Duhaime )〕〔 There is no recorded instance of freeman tactics being upheld by a legal verdict;〔(The Guardian )〕 in refuting one by one each of the arguments used by Meads, Rooke concluded that "a decade of reported cases, many of which he refers to in his ruling, have failed to prove a single concept advanced by OPCA litigants."〔(''Canadian Lawyer'' magazine )〕 Freemen-on-the-land are also called "Freemen-of-the-land" and the "Freemen movement". They may be an offshoot of the Sovereign Citizen movement. ==Beliefs== "Freemen" believe that statute law is a contract, and that individuals can therefore opt out of statute law, choosing instead to live under what they call "common" (case) and "natural" laws. Under their theory, natural laws require only that individuals do not harm others, do not damage the property of others, and do not use "fraud or mischief" in contracts. They say that all people have two parts to their existence – their body and their legal "person". The latter is represented by the individual's birth certificate; some freemen claim that it is entirely limited to the birth certificate. Under this theory, a "strawman" is created when a birth certificate is issued, and this "strawman" is the entity who is subject to statutory law. The physical self is referred to by a slightly different name – for example "John of the family Smith", as opposed to "John Smith".〔("Nonsense or loophole?" ), ''Benchmark'', Issue 57, February 2012, p 18〕 Many "Freemen" beliefs are based on idiosyncratic interpretations of admiralty or maritime law, which the Freemen claim governs the commercial world. These beliefs stem from fringe interpretations of various nautical-sounding words, such as ownership, citizenship, dock, or birth (berth) certificate. Freemen refer to the court as a "ship", the court's occupants as "passengers" and claiming that anyone leaving are "men overboard".〔 Freemen will try to claim common law (as opposed to admiralty law) jurisdiction by asking "Do you have a claim against me?" This, they contend, removes their consent to be governed by admiralty law and turns the court into a common law court, so that proceedings would have to go forward according to their version of common law. This procedure has never been used successfully.〔〔 Freemen often will not accept legal representation; they believe that to do so would mean contracting with the state. They believe that the United Kingdom and Canada are now operating in bankruptcy and are therefore under admiralty law. They believe that since the abolition of the gold standard, UK currency is backed not by gold but by the people (or the legal fiction of their persons). They describe persons as creditors of the UK corporation. Therefore, a court is a place of business, and a summons is an invitation to discuss the matter at hand, with no powers to require attendance or compliance.〔 They may believe that the government controls secret bank accounts in their name as part of this theory, which may be accessed to pay off debts. None of the beliefs held by Freemen have ever been supported by any judgments or verdicts in any criminal or civil court cases.〔〔 An English solicitor, writing anonymously, commented: 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Freemen on the land」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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