John RawlsI shall begin by defining civil disobedience as a public, nonviolent, conscientious yet political act contrary to law usually done with the aim of bring about a change in the law or policies of the government. By acting in this way one addresses the sense of justice of the majority of the community and declares that in one's considered opinion the principles of social cooperation among free and equal men are not being respected. … [C]ivil disobedience … is an act guided and justified by political principles, that is, by the principles of justice which regulate the constitution and social institutions generally. … [I]n a reasonably just democratic regime there is a public conception of justice by reference to which citizens regulate their political affairs and interpret the constitution. The persistent and deliberate violation of the basic principles of this conception over any extended period of time, especially the infringement of the fundamental equal liberties, invites either submission or resistance. … Civil disobedience … expresses disobedience to law within the limits of fidelity to law …. [F]idelity to law is expressed by the public and nonviolent nature of the action, by the willingness to accept the legal consequences of one's conduct.

-- John Rawls, A Theory of Justice (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1971), Section 55. Definition of Civil Disobedience

Photo Credit: Jane Reed/Harvard Gazette

Contracts & Contempt

Adrian Piper, Civil Disobedience: Contracts and Contempt
(11 November 2011; revised 03 August 2012)

Adrian Piper, Five APRAF Work Contracts
(1 September 2010 – 1 March 2011)

Adrian Piper, Widerspruch
(13 Juli 2011)

Adrian Piper, Stellungnahme
(8 September 2011)

Richter, Amtsgericht Wedding, Stellungnahme
(14 Oktober 2011)

Richter, Landesgericht Berlin, Beschluß
(30 November 2011)

Adrian Piper, Stellungnahme zu dem Beschluß des
Landesgerichts Berlin

(07 February 2012)
Following this statement, delivered orally to the Arbeitsgericht Berlin, the court agreed to withhold application of the Scheinselbstständigkeit laws.

Adrian Piper, Zwei Fragen an Frau Dr. ---
(02 August 2012)
Following this oral interrogation of the plaintiff in the final hearing of this case, the court ordered a settlement favorable to APRA:

Richter, Arbeitsgericht Berlin, Protokoll der Öffentliche Sitzung des Arbeitsgericht Berlin
(02 August 2012)

Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany [Grundgesetz]
(23 May 1949)

Convention for the Protection of Human Rights & Fundamental Freedoms
(1 June 2010)