196 civil disobedience of neutral laws
"Although civil disobedience is usually the disobedience of laws which are regarded as inherently immoral or otherwise illegitimate, at times nonviolent actionists may disobey or ignore laws and regulations which are regarded as morally “neutral.” This is most likely to occur in the advanced stages of a nonviolent revolutionary movement (as in India under the British), or in cases where the nature of modern government, or of the issue itself, makes it difficult to noncooperate with or to disobey a law directly related to the grievance. An example of this was the issue of nuclear weapons in Britain in 1962."...
Potentially awesome partners
Potentially problematic matches
High scoring campaigns using this method
Historical cases from the Nonviolent Action Database that used this method
Venezuelans seize service vehicles, force neighborhood upgrade in Caracas, 1981
In 1981, a poorly coordinated attempt to privatize waste collection services left the neighborhood el 23 de Enero, the site of Venezuela’s largest public housing project, and other neighborhoods in Caracas without waste collection for weeks. El 23 de...
Greenpeace campaigns against dumping the Brent Spar oil rig, 1995
The Brent Spar, a 450-foot-long floating rig used as a loading buoy and storage tank for oil from the North Sea for fifteen years, was decommissioned in 1991. When Greenpeace learned of plans to dump the Brent Spar by sinking the structure in the Nor...
Indian peasants in Champaran campaign for rights, 1917
During the time of British occupation of India, peasants of Champaran district of the Bihar state were highly exploited by the indigo cultivation. The lessees of Indigo and agricultural areas had been Indians until 1793, but as the British Empire beg...
Indigenous Gurindji win land rights in Australia (Wave Hill Walk Off) 1966-1975
On August 23rd, 1966, the workers of the Wave Hill Station in Northern Territory, Australia, participated in a walk off led by Vincent Lingiari. The workers felt oppressed by the low wages, poor working and living conditions they received at the Wave...
Tunisians overthrow dictator and demand political and economic reform (Jasmine Revolution), 2010-2011
Over the past several decades, high unemployment, high food prices, and widespread poverty have characterized much of Tunisia. Government corruption and a paucity of political freedoms have also painted its landscape, making it exceedingly difficult ...
Serbians overthrow Milosevic (Bulldozer Revolution), 2000
During his first seven years as president of Serbia, Slobodan Milosevic led the country into several wars with Croatia and Bosnia and isolated it internationally. While he spent money on the country’s secret police and military, unemployment reached ...
Peace activists pledge resistance against U.S. military intervention in Central America, 1984-1990
In the early 1980s, it was no secret that United States president Ronald Reagan would use any means necessary to end or prevent the influence of Communism and the Soviet Union around the globe. The two countries had been engaged in a bitter ideologic...
National campaigners join Massachusetts locals to close Brayton Point coal plant, 2013
The Brayton Point Power Station, a coal burning power plant in Somerset, Massachusetts, regularly emits mercury, lead, sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide into the atmosphere. Brayton Point is one of the largest single sources of pollution in all of Ne...
U.S. student Tim DeChristopher disrupts government auction of oil lands, 2008
In October 2008 the Bureau of Land Management finalized three Resource Management Plans that would open new federal lands for oil and gas leasing in Southern Utah. Some of the lands were adjacent to national parks and monuments, including Dinosaur Na...
United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) launches double-pronged attack to defend benefits, 2012-2013
Peabody Energy Corporation is an international coal company based in St. Louis, Missouri (MO). In 2007, they created a spinoff company Patriot Coal Corp., also based in St. Louis, MO. Following the spinoff, Peabody Energy has gradually transferred re...
Low scoring campaigns using this method
Historical cases from the Nonviolent Action Database that used this method