Law can be defined as a rule, procedure or policy in place to ensure rightful conduct and prevent

wrongful or abusive conduct on the part of both individuals and groups, by means of enforcement and
punishment. The aim and objective of law is to ensure the collective wellbeing of the society and
nation. In this context, all laws are supposedly just and are binding. Challenging or otherwise rebelling
against the law is thus a violation of the law and punishable offence. However, laws in most parts of the
world are man-made and thus open to subjective interpretation. It may that one person’s or group’s
definition of right and wrong may not be characterized as entirely opposite by another person or group.
In this scenario, it may or may not be an individual’s duty to obey just laws and unjust laws on the basis
of right and wrong defined by another individual or group of individuals.

The Soviet dictator Stalin enforced a regime of cruelty and inhumanity during his entire rule, especially
during the Great Purge of 1936-1939. Anyone could be arbitrarily assigned as an “enemy of the people”,
“bourgeois” or “enemy of the revolution” on the basis of mere and suspicion. Thousands if not millions
of people, even those in the law enforcement agencies and military, were either killed, imprisoned in
gulags, only to die later from cold, hunger and starvation. There is unanimous consensus that Stalin
instituted one of the worst forms of brutality and human rights abuse. Still he had a large number of
followers in the Communist Party willing to do his bidding without any fear of reprisals or retribution. In
such a case, it may as well be binding upon individuals or citizens of the state to take up arms and resist
such forms of torture, repression and subjugation by any means necessary.

On the other hand, laws may well be completely just and all forms at resisting them can only be defined
as means to spread anarchy, dissension, unrest, lawlessness and even worse, terrorism. In fact it
becomes binding upon all individuals and groups inside the nation to resist and fight such lawlessness.
The example of Una Bomber helps explain this point. Una Bomber was averse to all forms of technology
or technological innovation and progress. To promote and further his cause, he went to the extent of
mailing bombs to his supposed enemies. In this process, a few innocent people were killed, thereby
causing law enforcement to come into action arrest the Una Bomber, try him in court and get him
convicted.

In conclusion, man-made laws are subject to interpretation and debate, they may as well be just
requiring abidance or they may as well be inhumane and brutal requiring resistance and rebellion.