"It is specifically in situations where the fit between law and circumstance is uneven that the law will be tested most aggressively. Unfortunately, the burden of such testing almost always falls on the person who is caught in the sliding gap between law and circumstance. In those situations, Your Honor, where the law cannot adequately be brought to address the circumstances, it may be necessary for the individual to challenge the law itself by resisting it. Henry David Tho-reau identified one specific form of resistance to the law as civil disobedience."

"So—" I had the feeling Judge Cavanaugh was about to close a trap on the monkey. "You're saying that it's all right to break the law, if the law is unjust … ?"

"Your Honor—" The monkey bowed graciously. "I have not concluded my presentation. Any individual who resists the law must be prepared to suffer the consequences of his or her resistance. He should be prepared to endure incarceration or worse.

"The nature of civil disobedience is not that one is entitled to a 'Get Out of Jail Free' card because the law is wrong. The purposeof an act of civil disobedience is to go to jail and by remaining in jail, cause embarrassment to the law and those entrusted with the structure of it. By going to jail, one calls attention to the unjust law and creates the impetus for change—and that is the intention of civil disobedience, to cause change. So, by its strictest possible interpretation, civil disobedience honorsthe law. The willingness of the individual to suffer incarceration demonstrates his or her recognition of the law's authority—civil disobedience serves as a petition for change. Civil disobedience does not disregard the entire body of law, it challenges only a specific application of the law as unjust with the intention of removing it from the body of the law, because the function of the law must be to provide access to justice.

"But there is anotherassumption in your question that has to be addressed, Your Honor. You used the word breakinstead of challenge.It is always appropriate to challenge the law— in court—for how else can we test the law as an instrument of justice. But the term 'breaking the law' presumes a state of lawlessness on the part of the individual committing the action. It presumes that the individual is challenging the entire body of lawand the society it defines. This is a vastly different domain of behavior than civil disobedience.

"When an individual disregards the body of law, he is setting it aside as irrelevant to his own behavior, or worse, he is setting himself abovethe law. This is a behavior that is intolerable to the society that has authorized the law, because it challenges the entire social contract. The inherent agreement in the social contract is that society will preserve the social contract for the mutual benefit of all participants. If a person does not meet his obligations to the society in which he lives, he has no right to expect the benefits or protections of that society, least of all recognition of his rights as a member of it."

Judge Cavanaugh was fascinated. He leaned forward on the bench with his blubbery chin resting in one enormous hand.

"So," continued the monkey, "the relationship to the law implied by the word breakis one in which the authority of the law is disregarded by the individual. This is a relationship that a society cannot tolerate and still maintain the social contract. Therefore, Your Honor, it is neverappropriate to break the law. It is, however, appropriate to challenge it responsibly." The monkey stopped and looked expectantly to the bench.

"Go on," prompted Cavanaugh.

"To speak directly to your question, it is up to the individual to choose the best avenue of challenge—and the individual must be prepared to accept the consequences of that challenge. A person who argues that he or she should escape the consequences is arguing that participation in the social contract is voluntary, mutable, and arbitrary. Such an argument not only disempowers the underlying ground of being on which the entire legal system stands, it also disempowers the whole concept of civil disobedience as we know it. History has demonstrated more than once why society should grant little weight to this argument. But I digress—the philosophical aspects of the individual's responsibility to the society from which he takes benefit is not the subject of this discussion, is it?" The monkey faced the judge. "Have I resolved your doubts, Your Honor?"

Judge Cavanaugh's expression was halfway between bemusement and awe. He folded his hands in front of himself and leaned forward across the bench. "You give me no choice, but to accept you at face value. No practical joker ever argues the law like that. In fact, damn few lawyers on Luna—or anywhere else—can argue that well. The court recognizes HARLIE as the sole legal counsel for the Dingillian family."

"Your Honor?" That was the monkey.

"Yes?"

"For the record, would you please specify that my role here is notprocedural assistance, but full representation with all the rights and privileges associated with such?"

"So noted," Cavanaugh said, scribbling something on his scratch pad. For a moment, I thought we'd gotten away with it, but Cavanaugh was paying much closer attention than was obvious. Without looking up from what he was writing, he said, "I know what you're doing. I'm going to allow it for two reasons. One, I'm bored. And two, it may very well elevate this case above the level of lunatic asylum. That is, if the lunatics don't figure it out first." I wasn't sure which meaning he intended for the word lunatic,probably both.

Cavanaugh looked up from his paper and across to the monkey. "I assume you have a motion to file now?"

"Yes, sir. I move to dismiss this entire proceeding."

"I expected as much," said the judge. "On what grounds?"

"That all of the motions before this court are irrelevant to the situation. As I noted in my previous argument, as society evolves, there are slip zones between law and circumstance. We are in one of those zones now."

"Let me guess," said Cavanaugh. "We just happen to be in one of those slip zones now because I just recognized you as a qualified representative … ?"

"That's only a small part of it, Your Honor."

"All right, Counselor—and I use the term advisedly—walk me through it."

ARGUMENTS

The monkey gathered itself as if preparing to speak, but it was only a performance—a kind of punctuation mark for its speech. I was beginning to get it; the monkey wasn't who HARLIE really was, but it was the costume he wore, the role he had to play here. But if we could listen throughthe monkey to the mind behind it … the monkey itself seemed to disappear and all that was left was a very powerful spirit.

"First of all, the Dingillian family has reconciled its differences. Both of the Dingillian parents have withdrawn their custody claims. I want to note here for the record, that nowhere in any of the previous actions has either party tried to assert that the other is an unfit parent—only that actions taken on the children's behalf have been unsuitable because of a failure of mutual consent."

Judge Cavanaugh nodded. "The court will stipulate that neither parent has been judged unfit. Go on, Counselor—understand, I am referring to you as 'Counselor' as a courtesy; in recognition of the role you are playing here, and not necessarily as an official affirmation of license or expertise."