Just Laws Versus Unjust Laws: Asserting the Morality of Civil Disobedience

Abstract

How is a citizen living under a merciless totalitarianism such as the Nazi but opposed to its philosophies expected to respond to the law? Where does his primary obligation as a citizen reside? Is it to the laws of the land that command total submission or to his convictions by which he is convinced that the system is totally unjust? Does one have a moral obligation to always obey the law? Conversely, should one obey an unjust law? Obviously, such an individual like Antigone in ancient Greece is naturally torn between two loyalties. If he obeys the law, he would be guilty of knowingly aiding to sustain an unjust system. If he follows his moral judgment and violate the law, he would be charged with the penalty stipulated in the law.

Keywords: Just laws, unjust laws, civil disobedience, Martin Luther King Jr, Malcolm X, Thoreau, Ghandi, Antigone