civil disobedience

active refusal to obey certain laws, demands and commands of a government or of an occupying power without resorting to physical violence. The American author Henry David Thoreau pioneered the modern theory behind this practice in his 1849 essay Civil Disobedience. In seeking an active form of civil disobedience, one may choose to deliberately break certain laws, such as by forming a peaceful blockade or occupying a facility illegally.