Our Story
About The 42
A law game built on the belief that the best way to understand justice is to be the one who delivers it.
Our Story
A law game built on the belief that the best way to understand justice is to be the one who delivers it.
Law is one of the most consequential disciplines in human civilisation — yet most people never encounter it beyond headlines and courtroom dramas. We wanted to change that.
The 42 began with a question: What if learning law felt like being the judge, not the student? Instead of memorising case names from a textbook, you would step into the courtroom, read the evidence, and deliver a verdict — then discover how the real court ruled and why.
That question became 294 real cases, drawn from 7 distinct legal traditions, structured into a ranked game that grows with you — from curious beginner to seasoned legal thinker.
The Name
In ancient Egyptian belief, Ma'at was the goddess of truth, justice, cosmic order, and morality. Every soul, upon death, was brought before her scales, where their heart was weighed against a single feather.
To pass into the afterlife, one had to have lived in accordance with her 42 Declarations of Innocence, the earliest known code of ethical law. These 42 laws predate most modern legal codes by thousands of years.
We named the game after them. Every case you judge is an echo of that ancient question: does this decision hold up on Ma'at's scales?
We believe legal literacy is a fundamental life skill — not just for lawyers. Understanding how courts work, how evidence is weighed, and how different legal traditions approach justice makes you a more informed citizen, employee, and human being.
The 42 is built to be:
Accurate: Every case is grounded in real court decisions, real facts, and real outcomes. We adapt for accessibility but never distort the law.
Diverse: We deliberately cover seven legal traditions, including systems that are rarely taught in Western institutions. Islamic law, Indigenous law, and Hindu law are not footnotes — they are full chapters with equal depth.
Progressive: The game grows with you. Rank 1 cases introduce core concepts. Rank 7 Expert cases are genuinely challenging — designed to stump practising lawyers.
Who Is It For
No legal background required. No prerequisites. Just a willingness to think carefully and decide fairly.
Supplement your coursework with real case practice. Build intuition for how courts reason before you step into a lecture theatre.
Test your reasoning across seven traditions. The Expert cases are designed to challenge even experienced practitioners.
You don't need a law degree to find justice fascinating. The 42 meets you wherever you are and teaches as you play.
Seven Traditions
The 42 covers legal systems that shape the lives of billions. Each tradition has its own chapter, its own philosophy, its own cases.
We built The 42 because we believe that developing a sense of right and wrong — of fairness, proportionality, and consequence — is one of the most important things a person can do. And we believe games are one of the best ways to build that sense, precisely because they require you to act, not just read.
But we want to be completely transparent about what The 42 is, and what it is not.
The cases in The 42 are adapted, not transcribed. Real court decisions involve procedural history, evidentiary subtlety, jurisdictional nuance, and layers of legal argument that cannot fit in a game format without simplification. We have done our best to preserve the essential legal principle at stake in each case — but we have shortened, restructured, and in some instances combined elements to serve the game's educational purpose.
Laws change. A landmark decision from 1932 may rest on a principle that has since been modified, qualified, or overturned. The 42 does not update cases in real time. What was the law when a case was decided may not be the law today.
What we are building is moral reasoning, not legal expertise. We want you to walk away from The 42 with sharper instincts — the ability to notice when something is unfair, to identify whose rights are at stake, to ask "what principle should govern this?" before you ask "what does the law say?". That skill matters whether you become a lawyer or not. It matters every time you vote, every time you manage people, every time you face a difficult decision. The law, at its best, is simply society's attempt to answer those questions consistently. The 42 invites you to practise answering them yourself.
If you are facing a real legal matter, please consult a qualified legal professional in your jurisdiction. Nothing in The 42, including case outcomes, legal principles, or question rubrics, constitutes legal advice.
Download The 42 and start your career as a judge. Free to play.
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