How Does John Rawls Define Civil Disobedience

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John Rawls defined civil disobedience as a politically motivated, public, non­violent and conscientious breach of law undertaken with the aim of bringing about a change in laws or government policies (Rawls, pg 364). With this in mind, he gives us three reasons as to what justifies the act of civil disobedience.

1) A clear violation of justice, particularly violation of equal liberty and fair equality of opportunities (Rawls 372). This is aimed directly to any of those laws that are clearly meant to restrict or subject certain groups to unjust conditions. Jim crow laws, or restriction on gay marriage in the 1990’s are examples of unjust laws and obstruction that violated a minority group. Rawls also include the condition of obstruction of

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