Civil Disobedience and Its Justification in Respect to Moral Aspects

Abstract

Civil disobedience has been a central issue in recent times in the field of political philosophy. The most important moral question related to the problem of civil disobedience concerns the limits of a citizen's obedience owed to the state. The problem of political obligation raises questions such as: 1. To what extent does the citizen have an obligation to obey the laws of the state? 2. Is the citizen of a state, whether democratic or otherwise, under an obligation to obey the unjust laws of the state? There are two different positions or viewpoints concerning the character of the obligation to obey the laws of the State. 1. The first position states .........."one has an absolute obligation to obey the law and therefore disobedience to the state law is never justified". 2. The second position asserts -------- "one has a Prima facie obligation to obey the law, but this obligation can be overridden by conflicting obligations. Hence, disobedience to the state law can be justified in the presence of outweighing circumstances".