Animal Activists, Civil Disobedience and Global Responses to Transnational Injustice
Traditionally, acts of civil disobedience are understood as a mechanism by which citizens may express dissatisfaction with a law of their country. That expression will typically be morally motivated, non-violent and aimed at changing their government’s policy, practice or law. Building on existing...
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ftunistlouisbrus:oai:dial.uclouvain.be:boreal:274971 2024-05-12T08:11:33+00:00 Animal Activists, Civil Disobedience and Global Responses to Transnational Injustice O’Sullivan, Siobhan McCausland, Clare Brenton, Scott UCL - SSH/SPLE - Institut de sciences politiques Louvain-Europe 2017 http://hdl.handle.net/2078.1/274971 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11158-017-9361-6 eng eng Springer Netherlands boreal:274971 http://hdl.handle.net/2078.1/274971 doi:10.1007/s11158-017-9361-6 urn:ISSN:1356-4765 urn:EISSN:1572-8692 Res Publica : a journal of moral, legal and social philosophy, Vol. 23, no.3, p. 261-280 (2017) Civil disobedience Transnational injustice Rawls Anti-whaling activism Animals info:eu-repo/semantics/article 2017 ftunistlouisbrus https://doi.org/10.1007/s11158-017-9361-6 2024-04-18T17:05:27Z Traditionally, acts of civil disobedience are understood as a mechanism by which citizens may express dissatisfaction with a law of their country. That expression will typically be morally motivated, non-violent and aimed at changing their government’s policy, practice or law. Building on existing work, in this paper we explore the limits of one well-received definition of civil disobedience by considering the challenging case of the actions of animal activists at sea. Drawing on original interviews with advocates associated with Sea Shepherd, Greenpeace and Humane Society International we find that even if animal activists are morally motivated and civil, the transnational nature of their activity makes it difficult to assess their intention to bring about a change in law or public policy. This means that a civil disobedience defence may not be available to activists operating across international borders. This raises important questions about the usefulness of the civil disobedience concept within the context of a globalised world. We conclude that while the actions of some anti-whaling activists may not meet definitions of civil disobedience as conventionally understood, this says more about the narrow way in which that concept has been traditionally defined, than it does about the type of activity some anti-whaling activists have undertaken in the Southern Ocean. Finally, we argue that activists wishing to make a stand against whaling may have no choice but to act as global citizens because policy change within a single nation- state is unlikely to lead to the cessation of this inherently transnational activity. Article in Journal/Newspaper Southern Ocean DIAL@USL-B (Université Saint-Louis, Bruxelles) Southern Ocean Res Publica 23 3 261 280 |
institution |
Open Polar |
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DIAL@USL-B (Université Saint-Louis, Bruxelles) |
op_collection_id |
ftunistlouisbrus |
language |
English |
topic |
Civil disobedience Transnational injustice Rawls Anti-whaling activism Animals |
spellingShingle |
Civil disobedience Transnational injustice Rawls Anti-whaling activism Animals O’Sullivan, Siobhan McCausland, Clare Brenton, Scott Animal Activists, Civil Disobedience and Global Responses to Transnational Injustice |
topic_facet |
Civil disobedience Transnational injustice Rawls Anti-whaling activism Animals |
description |
Traditionally, acts of civil disobedience are understood as a mechanism by which citizens may express dissatisfaction with a law of their country. That expression will typically be morally motivated, non-violent and aimed at changing their government’s policy, practice or law. Building on existing work, in this paper we explore the limits of one well-received definition of civil disobedience by considering the challenging case of the actions of animal activists at sea. Drawing on original interviews with advocates associated with Sea Shepherd, Greenpeace and Humane Society International we find that even if animal activists are morally motivated and civil, the transnational nature of their activity makes it difficult to assess their intention to bring about a change in law or public policy. This means that a civil disobedience defence may not be available to activists operating across international borders. This raises important questions about the usefulness of the civil disobedience concept within the context of a globalised world. We conclude that while the actions of some anti-whaling activists may not meet definitions of civil disobedience as conventionally understood, this says more about the narrow way in which that concept has been traditionally defined, than it does about the type of activity some anti-whaling activists have undertaken in the Southern Ocean. Finally, we argue that activists wishing to make a stand against whaling may have no choice but to act as global citizens because policy change within a single nation- state is unlikely to lead to the cessation of this inherently transnational activity. |
author2 |
UCL - SSH/SPLE - Institut de sciences politiques Louvain-Europe |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
O’Sullivan, Siobhan McCausland, Clare Brenton, Scott |
author_facet |
O’Sullivan, Siobhan McCausland, Clare Brenton, Scott |
author_sort |
O’Sullivan, Siobhan |
title |
Animal Activists, Civil Disobedience and Global Responses to Transnational Injustice |
title_short |
Animal Activists, Civil Disobedience and Global Responses to Transnational Injustice |
title_full |
Animal Activists, Civil Disobedience and Global Responses to Transnational Injustice |
title_fullStr |
Animal Activists, Civil Disobedience and Global Responses to Transnational Injustice |
title_full_unstemmed |
Animal Activists, Civil Disobedience and Global Responses to Transnational Injustice |
title_sort |
animal activists, civil disobedience and global responses to transnational injustice |
publisher |
Springer Netherlands |
publishDate |
2017 |
url |
http://hdl.handle.net/2078.1/274971 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11158-017-9361-6 |
geographic |
Southern Ocean |
geographic_facet |
Southern Ocean |
genre |
Southern Ocean |
genre_facet |
Southern Ocean |
op_source |
Res Publica : a journal of moral, legal and social philosophy, Vol. 23, no.3, p. 261-280 (2017) |
op_relation |
boreal:274971 http://hdl.handle.net/2078.1/274971 doi:10.1007/s11158-017-9361-6 urn:ISSN:1356-4765 urn:EISSN:1572-8692 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11158-017-9361-6 |
container_title |
Res Publica |
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23 |
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3 |
container_start_page |
261 |
op_container_end_page |
280 |
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