Crime without punishment? On the legitimacy of illegal actions from the climate movement | Amsterdam University Press Journals Online
2004
  1. Home
  2. A-Z Publications
  3. Filosofie & Praktijk
  4. Volume 44, Issue 3/4
  5. Article
Volume 44, Issue 3/4
  • ISSN: 0167-2444
  • E-ISSN: 2949-8651
file format pdf download PDF

Abstract

Abstract

In this paper, we address a recent case of eight climate activists being prosecuted by the Dutch government under charges of sedition. We note how this unprecedented legal action aligns with a broader trend of criminalizing the climate movement around the world. In this context, activists seem to claim and distinguish themselves from criminals by aligning themselves with the tradition of ‘civil disobedience.’ We highlight some limitations that this traditional form of protest poses to the climate movement and ask how climate activists can claim legitimacy even when adopting tactics other than civil disobedience. We then propose a method of categorizing different tactics by positioning them in a two-dimensional spectrum according to their degree of violence and fidelity to law. Finally, we reflect on how climate activists may claim legitimacy for tactics across this spectrum by reflecting on Martin Luther King, Jr. and Simone de Beauvoir’s philosophies.

© Patricia Reyes & Nolen Gertz. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the CC BY-ND 4.0 license. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0
Loading

Article metrics loading...

/content/journals/10.5117/FEP2023.3/4.004.REYE
2023-12-01
2024-04-29
Loading full text...

Full text loading...

/deliver/fulltext/01672444/44/3/4/FEP2023.3-4.004.REYE.html?itemId=/content/journals/10.5117/FEP2023.3/4.004.REYE&mimeType=html&fmt=ahah

References

  1. Berglund, Oscar. “Disruptive protest, civil disobedience & direct action,”Politics (2023), p. 1-19.
     [Google Scholar]
  2. Berglund, Oscar and Schmidt, Daniel. Extinction Rebellion and Climate Change Activism. Palgrave: Macmillan, 2020.
     [Google Scholar]
  3. Caney, Simon. “Responding to Global Injustice: On the Right of Resistance.”Social Philosophy and Policy, 32 (2015) 1, p. 51-73.
     [Google Scholar]
  4. Celikates, Robin, “Rethinking Civil Disobedience as a Practice of Contestation-Beyond the Liberal Paradigm”, Constellations23 (2016) 1, p. 37-45.
     [Google Scholar]
  5. Beauvoir, Simone de, The Ethics of Ambiguity (trans. BernardFrechtman). New York: Citadel Press, 1948.
     [Google Scholar]
  6. Delmas, Candace, Duty to Resist. When resistance should be uncivil. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2018.
     [Google Scholar]
  7. Extinction Rebellion. This is Not a Drill. An Extinction Rebellion Handbook. London: Penguin Random House UK, 2019.
     [Google Scholar]
  8. Extinction Rebellion Nederland, Statement Press Conference. June20, 2023. (https://a12blokkade.nl/statement.en.html).
     [Google Scholar]
  9. Global Witness. “Decade of Defiance,”September29, 2022. (https://www.globalwitness.org/documents/20425/Decade_of_defiance_EN_-_September_2022.pdf)
  10. Hadden, Jennifer. Networks in Contention, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2015.
     [Google Scholar]
  11. King Jr., Martin Luther. (16April, 1963) ‘Letter from a Birmingham Jail.’ (https://www.africa.upenn.edu/Articles_Gen/Letter_Birmingham.html)
     [Google Scholar]
  12. Les soulèvement de la Terre (June20, 2023) plus de 15 personnes arrêtées ce matin : les soulèvements de la terre dénoncent une nouvelle opération de communication pour tenter de faire taire un mouvement populaire. (https://lessoulevementsdelaterre.org/blog/plus-de-15-personnes-arretees-ce-matin-les-soulevements-de-la-terre-denoncent-une-nouvelle-operation-de-communication-pour-tenter-de-faire-taire-un-mouvement-populaire)
  13. Malm, Andreas. How to Blow up a Pipeline. London/New York: Verso, 2020.
     [Google Scholar]
  14. Mireanu, Manuel. “The criminalisation of environmental activism in Europe,”Studia Universitatis Babes-Bolyai Sociologia59 (2014) 2, p. 87-10.
     [Google Scholar]
  15. NL Times, “Extinction Rebellion activists arrested at home over plans to block A12 highway.”January26, 2023 (https://nltimes.nl/2023/01/26/extinction-rebellion-activists-arrested-home-plans-block-a12-highway).
  16. Rawls, John. A Theory of Justice. Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press, 1971.
     [Google Scholar]
  17. Sovacool, Benjamin K. and Dunlap, Alexander, “Anarchy, war, or revolt? Radical perspectives for climate protection, insurgency, and civil disobedience in a low-carbon era”, Energy Research & Social Science86 (2022).
     [Google Scholar]
  18. Thoreau, Henry David, Civil Disobedience. 12th Media Services, 1849.
     [Google Scholar]
http://instance.metastore.ingenta.com/content/journals/10.5117/FEP2023.3/4.004.REYE
Loading
Crime without punishment? On the legitimacy of illegal actions from the climate movement
Filosofie & Praktijk 44, 307 (2023); https://doi.org/10.5117/FEP2023.3/4.004.REYE
/content/journals/10.5117/FEP2023.3/4.004.REYE
/content/journals/10.5117/FEP2023.3/4.004.REYE
Loading

Data & Media loading...

Keyword(s): civil disobedience; climate activism; Extinction Rebellion; legitimacy.
This is a required field
Please enter a valid email address
Approval was a Success
Invalid data
An Error Occurred
Approval was partially successful, following selected items could not be processed due to error