Wikilegality and legal consciousness1

Abstract

This article begins by commenting on recent work on legal consciousness, concentrating especially on the pioneering work of Patricia Ewick and Susan Silbey and later commentary, including research by Ayelet Oz that attempts to extend their ideas to cases of non‐state private ordering such as Wikipedia. It goes on to outline some of the distinctive features of Wikipedia's legal system and its ambivalence about (state) law and discusses the objections to what is called ‘wikilawyering’. To illustrate ‘wikilegality’, it offers a brief examination of how a dispute develops and is processed. The article concludes with some brief comments about what this case study can tell us about Ewick and Silbey's claims about hegemonic legality.