Problems of Obedience to Unjust Laws

Every theory of political obligation you have just studied assumes the State is at least roughly decent. What happens when it is not — when the law itself is the wrong being done? That is the problem this topic opens, and it is the hinge on which the whole module turns from why we obey to when we may refuse.

In two minutes

Once political obligation is understood as resting on some justification — consent, benefit, fairness — rather than mere command, the question of an unjust law becomes unavoidable: does the same justification still hold, or has the citizen's obligation run out?

The rest of this chapter

The full explanation, the cheat sheet, every previous-year question at every mark weight, the quiz and the answer skeletons are part of Political Science – II: Foundations of Political Obligation on LexBlox Semester. Sign in to unlock the subject, or read Module 1 of Legal Language and Writing free.