Where do we draw the line between what is right, and what is law? When can we say that a law should no longer be in observance and go against what society has set up as “right” and “wrong”. Many different people could ponder these questions, and more than likely get many different answers. Powerful people can be deranged, or what is right may have to be preserved by doing something that is wrong.

If the government is in complete control over you and everything around you, and decides to cause pain, hunger, or anything to discomfort you or others when no one has truly done wrong, people can consider him or herself justified. A nearly perfect example of this would be Russia and the Berlin Wall. Russia took almost complete control of East Germany, and made the people living there miserable with strict laws, curfews, and isolation. Many people tried to travel to the west side of the wall to escape the harsh living conditions. That action was considered illegal, but, to me, very justified.

My second reason is actually something the U.S. uses to break one of the laws set up from almost the very beginning of our nation, to protect the rights and lives of citizens. We can be almost certain the U.S. interrogates terrorists inside of its borders using certain types of tortures. Even though a terrorist isn’t a citizen, he still legally cannot be tortured. I believe that torture for interrogation is also justified, as long as what we want to know is presented in a fair way, it is known that he has the information, he is given a chance to tell what must be known before hand, and the information is important to the safety of any group of people.


Lastly, if a law puts a life in danger, it’s justifiable to break. For instance, if you must speed in order to save someone’s life because you are in hurry. Going over the speed limit is fine if you have someone that needs to be at the hospital in a hurry. Another example could be disobeying orders in the army to go save someone else’s life.

Laws, as a whole, should be designed to keep people safe and to help make a successful, fair government. As long as a law applies to both of these, they need to be abided by no matter what. However, when a law has endangered the rights, safety, or just flat out hurts people, just to hurt, you may have a justifiable reason to break it.