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Is there an obligation to obey the law? If so, does the obligation exist only when the reasons behind the law apply or even when they don't? If the latter--if there is an obligation to obey the law just because it is a law--what about unjust laws? Put another way, what is the basis of legal authority and obligation, and what are their limits? How does this compare to other forms of authority and obligation, such as religious or moral? And what are the implications for vexed questions surrounding civil disobedience and war-crime tribunals?

Dr. Daniel Mark is an associate professor of political science at Villanova University. Appointed by successive Speakers of the US House of Representatives, he served for four years on the nine-member, bipartisan US Commission on International Religious Freedom, most recently as chairman. His book, The Nature of Law: Authority, Obligation, and the Common Good, was published in 2024 and received the First-Time Author Award from the University of Notre Dame Press. At Villanova, he is a faculty fellow of the Matthew J. Ryan Center for the Study of Free Institutions and the Public Good and of the Eleanor H. McCullen Center for Law, Religion, and Public Policy, and he holds the rank of battalion professor in Villanova’s Navy Reserve Officers’ Training Corps unit.