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In 1998, in Wallis, the Territorial Council of Women complained to the French republican court about its president, accused of embezzlement of public funds. Not only did the president not reply to the summons of the solicitor, she also hid herself in the royal palace, putting herself under the king’s protection and customary justice. This triggered a long‑term political power conflict, starting with a conflict of competence between a customary mode of thinking and administering justice on the one hand and the legal procedure applied by the French administration on the other. The case study presented here is a symptomatic example of transformations of political‑judicial life in Wallis since the end of the twentieth century.