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From the forums. . .
[QUOTE=templar_knight;121377]I would agree that certain laws are really silly and should be written out of the books.
But until they are, they are still the law.
So my question is " even though a law seems silly or just plain wrong " do you disobey it therefore "breaking the law " or do you still obey it even though it is silly or wrong ?
Perhaps you can add a example or two please ?[/QUOTE]
I would argue that civil disobedience is a core principle in a functioning democracy. So I run red lights on dark country roads when no one is around. :p
Seriously, as has already been well-stated, civil obedience is necessary to stir the populace to action in cases of injustice. Rosa Parks did not change the legal face of segregation in America, but she humanized the issue and made a broader swath of America realize how awful its legal system was in its categorization of people and its treatment of Black Americans. And that emboldened the Supreme Court to strike down Separate-But-Equal on constitutional grounds, and eventually LBJ was able to push through the Civil Rights Acts of 1964 and 1965, which did change the legal face of America's race relations.
Ghandi's civil disobedience movement in India broke English support of the colonial rule in India. Civil disobedience during the Vietnam War convinced America's politicians that America was not committed to a long term engagement in Vietnam.
One final point. Jury nullification -- also a core principle of the Constitution -- is an important form of civil disobedience. If a law is unjust, twelve jurors can find you not guilty of the crime even if the evidence is overwhelming that the crime was committed. It's the last protection that a citizen has from a potentially unjust government, the unwillingness of your peers to convict you of violating a law that is unjust.
Cheers,
Odyssey
:D
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Posted by LawOdyssey on 2008-08-04 13:41:45 | Rating: | Views: 42
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