Should Unjust Laws Be Obeyed?

960 Words2 Pages

John Stuart mill wrote on liberty which basically was about freedom and that what majority says is right. Since we don’t live in a perfect world we often have laws that are unjust. Many civil activists believe that not only it is our right but it is our obligation to disobey unjust laws. The question that rises is where this freedom comes from? These civil activists believe that we have god given rights that no one can take away. Laws that unjust and interfere with our rights should not be obeyed. There are also those that believe laws must be obeyed whether they are just or unjust. Socrates is among those who believe that we should obey laws even if they are unjust. In apology Socrates tells Crito those laws are the laws that raised him that gave him education and what not. Vladimir Trivinakilyn was a Russian citizen during the Stalin regime. Vladimir believed that laws were meant to protect people not harm them and even if there were laws that were hurting people they should deal with it. “If today we break laws we don’t like than tomorrow that could result in breaking all the laws”. “Laws are made by civilized people and any civilized person knows that they should follow laws regardless of what happens”. These are just some of the quotes used by people who have opposing views with those who believe that we have right to disobey unjust full laws. On March 2009 Jake Natterson and Ryan Pelosi have a debate concerning laws. Natterson: Like all the civil activists I agree that it is our right and obligation to disobey unjust laws. Pelosi: Laws are here to keep us civilized. Natterson: What are your views are unjust? And I do have an answer for your “laws are for civilized people” The animals don’t have laws and yet they manage t... ... middle of paper ... ...people are in. this won’t satisfy the questions because we still face the dilemma of rather laws that we don’t like should be followed. Than we have the invisible theory which still does not solve the problem. So what is going to satisfy our problem? Rights theory seems to answer our problem. Rights theory states that laws should be kept if everyone agrees with them. Rights theory also states that we should have a contract, a contract that allows us to live in harmony. For example if x wants to live in peace x should cooperate with the others and the best way to do that is to have laws that will allow that. We came across some interesting ideas and theories. Laws and social rights continue to be a big debate. When it comes to these topics there are a lot of factors we have to take into consideration. Hopefully one day we will have a solution to these problems.

Open Document