The Legal Right to Disobey Law

Under what circumstances it is permissible to disobey a law that has been adopted in accordance with the requirements of the legal system? This book endeavours to present a jurisprudential case for the legal right to disobey laws that are deemed to be grossly unjust; it is a guidebook on how people can lawfully practice civil disobedience.

The Legal Right to Disobey Law offers a lucid, rigorous, and wide-ranging exploration of higher law jurisprudence and its enduring relevance for contemporary debates on civil disobedience, free speech, and the rule of law. Bringing together two of the most prominent and distinguished scholars of evident expertise and authority, the volume traces the development of the ‘right to resist’ from classical, biblical, and early modern sources through to pressing legal and political challenges in modern democracies. With impressive conceptual clarity and careful normative judgement, it confronts the erosion of democratic values while articulating a principled defence of fundamental rights. A significant contribution to legal and political theory, and far beyond, and a timely, most welcome volume.

— Stefano Salemi, University of Oxford

Whatever is left of the rule of law properly understood has been undermined and subverted by official state policy for decades, many examples of which from across the globe are described in this volume by Augusto Zimmermann and Gabriël Moens. This is a necessary book which guides the reader in an excursion through the philosophical, theological and historical underpinnings of our legal system, illustrating their justification for the moral obligation to resist tyranny. It will hopefully be read widely by students of law and political science. Sidestream Press is therefore honoured to present this work as the first book in our catalogue.

— From the ‘Publisher’s Note’, Edwin Dyga

{1} The collapse of Western values: Deteriorating ethical standards; The Orders Project; The role of the judiciary in the erosion of democratic values; The desperate quest for action; The focus and structure of the book; {2} What is civil disobedience: A panoply of conflicting views on ‘civil disobedience’; Direct and indirect civil disobedience; Assessing acts of civil disobedience {3} The Higher Law within an ancient Greek and Roman framework: The Higher Law within a Greek framework; The Higher Law within a Roman framework {4} The Higher Law within a Christian framework: Civil disobedience in the Bible; Early Christian theologians and civil disobedience; The Calvinist tradition in France; The Scottish Calvinist tradition {5} The Higher Law within a Western framework: John Locke (1634-1704); The teachings of the greatest English jurists; The American Civil Rights movement {6} The doctrine of the ‘lesser magistrate’ {7} The failure of lesser magistrates to resist immoral orders: the German border guard cases: The judgment of the Court of 3 November 1992; The defence of following orders; The border guard cases in the European Court of Human Rights; The duty to disobey an immoral law {8} Natural law and civil disobedience: Natural law and the separation of law from morality; The minimum content of natural law; The critical tradition; Free speech and the minimum content of natural law {9} Free speech and civil disobedience: Australia; European Union; United Kingdom {10} Freedom of the press and civil disobedience: Facial expression and non-verbal communication; The response to the Bondi massacre; Speech restricting laws and freedom of the press; The mass migration issue {11} Democracy and civil disobedience: The link between democracy and civil disobedience; The erosion of democracy; The emergence of hate speech legislation {12} Diversity and civil disobedience: Diversity in higher education institutions; Diversity as a political phenomenon; Diversity and the right to resist {13} The ‘rule of law’ and civil disobedience: The ‘rule of law’ and constitutionalism; Emergency measures and the ‘rule of law’ {14} The ‘right to resist’ as a mega-right {Acknowledgements} {About the Authors}

Professor Augusto Zimmermann PhD (Mon.), LLM, LLB (Hon.), CIArb, DipEd, is a former Law Reform Commissioner with the Law Reform Commission of Western Australia. He is the Foundation Dean and Professor of Law at Alphacrucis University College.

Professor Gabriël A. Moens AM JD (Leuven), LLM (North-Western), PhD (Sydney), GCEd (Queensland), MBA (Murdoch), MAppL (COL), FCIArb, CIArb, FAIM, FCL, FAAL is an Emeritus Professor of Law at the University of Queensland and an Adjunct Professor of Law at Curtin University.

A complete biography of the authors appears on pages 200-203.

ISBN: 978-1-7646444-0-2 (print)

204 pages

Foreword, Introduction and Publisher's Note

Subscribe by email to be notified when this item is ready for purchase.