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Show Lawyer Relates Rights To Civil Disobediance it '','''" J- pi' w l: " X the students were willing to be jailed for their convictions. DEAN McKAY disregarded two extremes concerning civil disobedience as pictured by many in America. No one person per-son can set himself above the law and make his own determination determi-nation as to which laws he will abide by, he insisted. On the other hand, "all law is not sacred and it should not be abided by simply because it is on the books." BECAUSE in a democratic society so-ciety the courts insist on examining exam-ining both sides of an issue, a law must be violated before it can be tested, observed the noted professor. This process, known as judicial review, needs someone willing to make a "test case" of a law by violating it so that a court may have two sides to examine. In examining his five criteria, Dean McKay said that the Berkeley Berke-ley protests, the Negro civil rights movement, the military reclassification issue, the draft-card draft-card burning incidents and the American passpert ---violation problem all had elements of them. Civil disobediance, in some instances, in-stances, is not only justiable, but almost mandatory in a democratic demo-cratic society, suggested Dean Robert D. McKay, professor and associate dean of law, New York University School of Law, during a speech last night in the Union Ballroom. CLIMAXING the second day in Challenge Week, the professor, profes-sor, who was a Challenge speaker speak-er last year, stated that many people welcomed protesting in today's "perilous times." Because of these "times, it becomes all the more important to have free discussion upon all the critical issues of the day," even though this criticism "becomes "be-comes dissent, dissent turns to protest and protest escalates into civil disobedience." HOWEVER, he stated that civil disobedience could only be justified if it followed five criteria: cri-teria: 1. The challengers must hold a strong conviction that the law as implied is invalid. In other words, he felt some moral principle princi-ple must be directly involved. 2. THE CHALLENGERS must first have made a "reasonable effort to exhaust whatever legal means are available." For example, ex-ample, he noted the Negro civil rights movement began in the courts. 3. The "disobedience" must always al-ways be open and not in secret. The challengers must call attention atten-tion to the injustice of the law, emphasized Dean McKay. 4. ALL challenges, of the law must be non-violent. This criteria, cri-teria, he noted was particularly helpful in the Negro movement. 5. The challengers must be willing to accept the "consequences "conse-quences of their violation of the law." Specifically citing the Berkeley protests, he stated that Dean Robert D. McKay of New York University School of Law, spoke on civil disobediance in Challenge Week program. : 1 |