ABSTRACT
The question of what is the nature and extent of one's obligation to obey the law is one of those relatively rare philosophic questions which can never produce doubts about the importance of theory for practice. Many of the important questions which bear upon the nature and extent of one's obligation to obey the law have been dealt with summarily and un-critically; distinguishable issues have been indiscriminately blurred and debatable conclusions gratuitously assumed. One kind of argument in support of the proposition that one cannot be justified in disobeying the law is that which asserts the existence of some sort of logical or conceptual relationship between disobeying the law and acting immorally. The notions of promise, consent, or voluntary participation do not, however, exhaust the possible sources of the obligation to obey the laws of a democracy.
