GP essay question guide
Is it ever right to break the law?
Because one case can answer "ever", spend your essay on conditions. A strong answer gives a clear test and shows why most lawbreaking fails it.
Unpack this question first: 'Ever' means one strong case can answer yes, so the real work is setting conditions. 'Right' is a moral word: name your test, such as an unjust law and peaceful means. Lesson: Abstract and values questions
Use this question in writing - Sign in, check the question, then write your response.
Three argument directions
Unjust laws
Breaking a plainly unjust law peacefully has helped end serious wrongs.
Qualification: People disagree about which laws are unjust.
Law protects everyone
If people ignored laws they disliked, the protection laws give would collapse.
Qualification: Obeying an unjust law can also harm people.
Conditions matter
Peaceful means, lawful options tried first, and accepting the penalty make a stronger case.
Qualification: Waiting for lawful change can take decades.
A model paragraph
Our own paragraph for this question. Copy its moves, not its words.
It can be right to break the law when the law itself is unjust and lawful ways to change it have failed, but the person who breaks it should accept the penalty. In 1955 Rosa Parks refused to give up her bus seat in Montgomery, Alabama, breaking a segregation law that denied Black Americans equal treatment. Her arrest helped start a bus boycott, and a court ruling the next year ended segregation on the city's buses. Her case is strong because the law was plainly unjust and the protest was peaceful. Most lawbreaking is not like this. If everyone ignored the laws they disliked, the protection that laws give everyone would collapse. Breaking the law is justified only rarely: when the wrong is serious, peaceful means have been tried, and the person openly accepts the consequences.
How it is built
- Stand: yes, under conditions.
- Case: Rosa Parks meets every condition.
- Judgement: three conditions that most lawbreaking fails.
Six examples to compare
Greta Effect: Youth Demand Climate Justice
Youth activists like Greta Thunberg spark global movements, pushing governments and businesses for urgent climate action and policy change.
Possible essay use
Organisers counted over 4 million people, many of them students, in about 150 countries on 20 September 2019.
Limitation
The 4 million figure comes from organisers, not independent counts; and turnout shows mobilisation, not whether emissions or policy changed as a result.
Case or source date: 2019-09-20
Source: EcoWatch
Iran's Uprising: Women, Life, Freedom
Mahsa Amini's 2022 death sparked Iran-wide protests for women's rights and against state control, highlighting demands for personal freedoms.
Possible essay use
Mahsa Amini died in custody in September 2022 after Iran's morality police arrested her over hijab rules, sparking nationwide protests.
Limitation
Iran disputes the UN findings and says she died of a medical condition; death tolls from the crackdown come from rights groups because independent access is restricted.
Case or source date: 2022-09-16
Source: PBS NewsHour (AP)
Tech Fuels Protests, States Push Back
Digital tools empower activists and help protests grow, but also bring state control and online risks. (e.g., Arab Spring, #MeToo)
Possible essay use
On 28 January 2011 Egypt's government cut almost all internet access and some mobile services in an attempt to stop protesters coordinating.
Limitation
Social media helped spread protests, but the uprisings had deeper causes such as unemployment, food prices and repression; and in Egypt the army, not online activists, decided Mubarak's fall.
Case or source date: 2011-01-28
Source: Voice of America
BLM: Global Fight for Racial Justice
The Black Lives Matter movement campaigns against police brutality and systemic racism. It gained global attention, especially after events in the US in 2020.
Possible essay use
George Floyd was murdered by Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin on 25 May 2020; a jury convicted Chauvin of murder and manslaughter in April 2021.
Limitation
The protests changed public debate quickly, but national police reform laws stalled in the US Congress, so the case is stronger on awareness than on lasting policy change.
Case or source date: 2020-05-25
Climate Lawsuits: Holding Polluters Accountable
Growing legal actions target corporations and governments for climate change contributions or inaction on commitments.
Possible essay use
In 2021 a Dutch court ordered Shell to cut its global emissions by 45% by 2030 compared with 2019.
Limitation
The Shell case is still before the Dutch Supreme Court, so its final outcome is open; check the latest ruling before citing it.
Case or source date: 2024-11-12
Source: De Rechtspraak (Dutch judiciary)
R2P vs Sovereignty: Global Crisis Dilemma
The Responsibility to Protect (R2P) clashes with national sovereignty when deciding on foreign intervention in humanitarian crises, creating a major global dilemma.
Possible essay use
World leaders endorsed the Responsibility to Protect at the 2005 UN World Summit.
Limitation
The veto count comes from a Syrian human rights group and counts drafts up to mid-2020; whether intervention would have saved lives is a judgement, not a fact the case proves.
Case or source date: 2011-10-04
Source: United Nations Office on Genocide Prevention and the Responsibility to Protect