LJU4801
MAY JUNE EXAM
DUE DATE: 1 JUNE 2026
, LJU4801 MAY JUNE EXAM 2026
DUE 1 JUNE 2026
QUESTION 1
Identify the legal philosophical approach that Martin Luther King Jr. advocates
in his letter and explain how this approach originated and developed.
Martin Luther King Jr.’s pronouncement from the “Letter from Birmingham Jail”
represents a classic articulation of the natural law approach to legal philosophy. His
central argument, that a moral duty exists to obey just laws but also a moral duty to
disobey unjust laws, is founded on the core natural law tenet that the validity of
positive (human-made) law is dependent on its consistency with a higher, moral law.¹
The natural law tradition, which King advocates, posits that there is a real set of
universal and unchanging moral principles a natural law that pre-exists and serves
as the yardstick by which all human laws must be judged.² A positive law that
contravenes these fundamental moral principles is, according to this view, not a true
law at all but a “distortion of law”.³ King makes this distinction explicitly when he
differentiates between “just” laws (which align with the moral law) and “unjust” laws
(which do not). His assertion that one has a “moral responsibility to disobey unjust
laws” flows directly from this natural law premise: if an unjust law is not a valid law in
the full sense, then disobedience is not a violation of law but rather an act of fidelity
to a higher legal and moral order.
The origins and development of this approach can be traced through
the ancient Greeks, particularly Plato and Aristotle, laid the philosophical
groundwork. Plato argued that the observable world is a poor copy of eternal “Ideals”
(such as the Ideal of Justice), which provide the standard for human conduct.⁴
¹ Martin Luther King Jr, ‘Letter from Birmingham Jail’ (16 April 1963).
² IJ Kroeze, Legal Philosophy (Only study guide for LJU4801, University of South Africa 2017) 63.
³ Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica (Herausgegeben von der Philosophisch-Theologischen
Hochschule Walbergen bei Köln Graz-Wien-Koln 1977) 2.1.90.2, discussed in Kroeze (n 2) 73.
⁴ Kroeze (n 2) 66-67.
MAY JUNE EXAM
DUE DATE: 1 JUNE 2026
, LJU4801 MAY JUNE EXAM 2026
DUE 1 JUNE 2026
QUESTION 1
Identify the legal philosophical approach that Martin Luther King Jr. advocates
in his letter and explain how this approach originated and developed.
Martin Luther King Jr.’s pronouncement from the “Letter from Birmingham Jail”
represents a classic articulation of the natural law approach to legal philosophy. His
central argument, that a moral duty exists to obey just laws but also a moral duty to
disobey unjust laws, is founded on the core natural law tenet that the validity of
positive (human-made) law is dependent on its consistency with a higher, moral law.¹
The natural law tradition, which King advocates, posits that there is a real set of
universal and unchanging moral principles a natural law that pre-exists and serves
as the yardstick by which all human laws must be judged.² A positive law that
contravenes these fundamental moral principles is, according to this view, not a true
law at all but a “distortion of law”.³ King makes this distinction explicitly when he
differentiates between “just” laws (which align with the moral law) and “unjust” laws
(which do not). His assertion that one has a “moral responsibility to disobey unjust
laws” flows directly from this natural law premise: if an unjust law is not a valid law in
the full sense, then disobedience is not a violation of law but rather an act of fidelity
to a higher legal and moral order.
The origins and development of this approach can be traced through
the ancient Greeks, particularly Plato and Aristotle, laid the philosophical
groundwork. Plato argued that the observable world is a poor copy of eternal “Ideals”
(such as the Ideal of Justice), which provide the standard for human conduct.⁴
¹ Martin Luther King Jr, ‘Letter from Birmingham Jail’ (16 April 1963).
² IJ Kroeze, Legal Philosophy (Only study guide for LJU4801, University of South Africa 2017) 63.
³ Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica (Herausgegeben von der Philosophisch-Theologischen
Hochschule Walbergen bei Köln Graz-Wien-Koln 1977) 2.1.90.2, discussed in Kroeze (n 2) 73.
⁴ Kroeze (n 2) 66-67.
