Every individual in a society has a responsibility to obey just laws and to disobey and resist unjust laws.

Every human being has a responsibility toward self, the family, and toward the society. It is absolutely right to obey the just laws and resist unjust laws for the sake of society. However, in the case of unjust rules, sometimes the price for such resistance compromises the personal and family life that it is expedient to obey the unjust laws either.

To begin with, laws are fundamental basis of every society and people need to obey just laws as they live in the society. Laws played their role as a touchstone, directing every individual to respect others right while being able to defend his/her own rights. Otherwise, anarchy takes hold in the communities, and the disordered lawless society distances from civilization. Thus, it is absolutely required to observe the just laws in order to preserve the integrity of a society.

Coming to the unjust laws, we see that morally it is incumbent upon us not to obey such rules. By establishment of such laws, governments can reap the benefits in favor of the ruling system, at the expense of the interests of the public. Hence, our social and moral responsibility is to prevent such laws from taking root among the societies. Consider the act of Martin Luther king. During his life, African-American citizens of the United States of America were gravely suffered for the segregation laws recognizing “black” people subordinate to the white ones. Martin Luther King by compromising his life and being five time arrested because of civil disobedience, made people aligned with his movement and brought the justice to the society.

However, sometimes such a resistance, in a society whose people are inured to unjust laws, jeopardizes the life of a person and his/her family, and thus, it is not advisable. In the successful social disobedience movements, not only people, but the body of the government is somehow tolerable to change the unjust laws. But, in some societies, any direct disobedience are nipped in the bud. For instance, in Afghanistan there are serious unjust laws for the individuals with homosexual inclinations. They are even targets of being murdered by Muslim extremists. While there are many other human rights in a waiting list to be observed in such a country, any open resistance to such serious unjust laws against homosexuals would be a futile attempt as the society needs to be tolerable to different people and this takes even generations.

In short, it is absolutely right to obey the just laws, as they are the foundations of any society. However, when it comes to the unjust laws, we should see that the resistances against the unjust laws would result in a change or not, and whether that change worth the endeavor.