Wikinews:Wikilawyering

Wikilawyering is a term used mainly to indicate inappropriate use of pseudo-legal technicalities with respect to Wikinews policies. It can also be used to assert that certain arguments made in one's self-defense are, regardless of the specifics, based on a technical interpretation of policy, rather than the underlying principles and goals of Policies and guidelines.

Policies and guidelines at Wikinews are intended to be interpreted in a commonsense manner which expresses the purpose of the policy or which tends toward resolution of disputes. Typically wikilawyering attempts to raise some procedural or evidentiary point in the manner it might be raised in legal proceedings, often using conventional common law reasoning—under the false assumption that administrators or the arbcom are obligated to follow the same rules of procedure as an actual court of law. Occasionally such an objection might concern some question of fairness, but often it serves only to evade the issue or obstruct the crafting of a workable solution.

Please note that the word carries a negative connotation and should not be applied lightly or indescriminately.

See also Wikipedia:Wikilawyering and related legal terms.