Civil Disobedience and the Legitimacy of the Actions

In the political theory of John Rawls and others, civil disobedience is regarded as legitimate action where the system produces outcomes that grossly contradict the principles of justice. A legal complex often also mobilizes to defend an promote central liberal values. The penitentiary law were regarded as biased and unjust in that they criminalized collective action by workers and left employers free to set working conditions in a situation with mass unemployment. The opinion that the law contradicted basic principles of fairness and equality and unduly restricted the freedoms of expression and association was widespread also in legal circles. Civil disobedience and action by a legal complex explain the demise of the penitentiary law during the cause on only three to 4 years. This gives support to Rawls’s view that civil disobedience may benefit society and strengthen democracy, albeit it is not recognized in this way by the law.