SummaryCivil disobedience is the term given to actions taken by individuals to influence public opinion on laws that individuals believe to be unjust or unjust. Actions taken are generally non-violent and may include sit-ins, mass demonstrations, pickets and marches. Citizens act according to their conscience, demonstrating highly advanced moral reasoning skills. Generally, these advanced skills fall under Kohlberg's six stages of moral development, particularly stages five and six. Characteristics of civil disobedience include no expression of anger, no swearing or insults, no retaliation, and submission to punishment by law enforcement. Historically, there have been many instances of civil disobedience: women's suffrage, environmental protests, the abolition of slavery, and anti-war movements. The civil rights movement and protests against the Vietnam War are two topics of interest. These were non-violent situations that turned violent when law enforcement or the military were involved, leading to killings, beatings, and mass arrests of protesters. Civil DisobedienceCivil disobedience is the result of individuals not adhering to a particular law for moral or political reasons. (Starr, 1998). Like-minded individuals usually form an organized group to protest the law and attempt to influence public opinion on the law in question. The desired result is to obtain a modification of the law in question, based on the conscience of the dissident group. This is something that the Bill of Rights identifies as a right of governed peoples; “The authority of government arises from the consent of the governed, and when any form of government becomes destructive, the people have the right to alter or abolish it” (Bill of Rights, 1791, Amendmen...... middle of article......ds Coalition to Unleash Power (nd) History of Mass Nonviolence “Civil Disobedience Training Retrieved from www.actupny.org/documents/CDdocuments/HistoryNV.Answers.com (nd) Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved from www.answers.com/topic/civil-disobedience.Bill of Rights (1791) Retrieved from www.billofrights.org.Infoplease.com (nd). (1998). The role of civil disobedience in democracy. Retrieved from www.civilliberties.org/sum98role.The Environmental Law Center (1999). Retrieved from www.elc.uvic.ca/projects/1999. -01/civil-disobedience.Williams, CR and Arrigo, BA (2008).. 162.