Disobeying Unjust Laws

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Recommended: Presentation on Gandhi's views on passive resistance

The Necessity of a Moral Compass On Law

Martin Luther King Jr. said “One has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws.” This is true in its most basic form. A just society is built around the idea of shared values and protected beliefs. If the legislator and implementor of the law becomes a burden to the people they are intended to protect through regulation; then they deserve to be critiqed and their laws disobeyed. Even the birth of the U.S started with a level of civil disobedience, that when left unrecognized, was influential in the creating of the U.S constitution and its values. Howard Zinn agreed. He said "Protest beyond the law is not a departure from democracy; it is absolutely essential to it.” This shows how important the ability to disobey an unjust law is! Without this ability, the people are at the will of the legislator not the other way around. The people decide their societies values. The people decide their societies beliefs. The people decide when enough is enough. In the event of an unjust unprecidented legislation the people are absolutely required to act. To show …show more content…

Mahatma Gandhi said “An unjust law is itself a species of violence. Arrest for its breach is more so. Now the law of nonviolence says that violence should be resisted not by counter-violence but by nonviolence. This I do by breaking the law and by peacefully submitting to arrest and imprisonment.” So while it is a necessary part of democracy to resist an unjust law it is just as equally necessary to do so peacefully, and show no other resistance than to the injustice being presented at the time. If an individual resists further, then their motives, their convictions, and the purity of their actions will be in doubt. They must adhere to a passive resistance. Dedicated solely to the improvement of the morality of the system they are a part

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