ABSTRACT
The question most prominently associated with the topic of political obligation is “Should I obey the law?”. If this question arises in a practical manner, that is, in a particular time and place and with a particular law or other authoritative command at issue, we are very often able to answer it to our satisfaction. But the answer to it, while certainly making at least tacit use of considerations of general applicability, will always depend in critical ways upon characteristics of the situation at hand—e.g., the characteristics of the particular law in question, the consequences of obeying it in the time and place. Thus it will be valid or justified only for that situation and others that happen to be relevantly similar to it. Since there is no way of knowing for certain whether all or any future situations will be relevantly similar, there is no valid way of moving from the answer in the particular case to a general answer to the question; there is no way to move to an answer that will settle the practical question whether to obey or disobey whenever and wherever the question arises.
