Civil Disobedience Movements and the Law

Abstract

It was Henry David Thoreau, who coined the term ‘Civil Disobedience’ and gave the first compelling argument for individual resistance against a ‘civilian government’, if its governance stood morally unjustified and unjust. But what really makes the study of civil disobedience movements interesting for a student of law is the justification of civil disobedience movements, on the grounds of morality, legitimacy and justice, to put forth a plea of challenging and changing existing laws and the very governmental set-up itself. Another forceful reason, for its study is the sheer nature by which civil disobedience movements bring about a change in laws by means of an extra-constitutional mechanism. It is the endeavour of the authour, in the course of this paper to undertake a jurisprudential analysis of Civil Disobedience movements. The same would be initiated with a discussion of law and morality and how civil disobedience movements testify to the fact the relation between laws and legitimacy does indeed stand and how ‘legitimacy’ can be used as a basis for bringing about changes in laws outside the constitutional framework of a country.