Doing What the Law Requires by Breaking Mandatory Laws

In this work, I contribute to the debate on the status and legitimacy of principled disobedience in a democratic polity. After introducing the notion, I move to argue that principled disobedience can be framed not only as a moral and political stance but also, and without contradiction, as a legal requirement. As a result, it will be maintained that not only can we engage in principled disobedience without necessarily violating our legal obligations, but these obligations may actually mandate principled disobedience. This framing of the problem of principled lawbreaking makes the proposed discussion distinctive and original in virtue of its claim—namely, that we may have not only a moral justification to disobey the law but a legal obligation to do so, an obligation to break the law on principled legal grounds.