Compliance and Non-Compliance with Unjust Orders : A Case Analysis of Korea’s December 3 Martial Law and the Nazi Ghetto Operations

The purpose of this study is to analyze cases in which individuals’ capacity for reflection and moral agency is suppressed under unjust orders, and to explore the social implications of these cases. This study establishes four analytical frameworks that distinguish compliance from non-compliance with orders: the suspension of thinking, norm-bound judgment, the rupture of relationships with others, and the collapse of communicative rationality. The analysis reveals that when reflective thinking is sustained and language oriented toward mutual understanding is preserved, individuals are able to critically examine external authority and function as moral agents who assume responsibility for their actions. In particular, when principled rational judgment based on universal norms is combined with relational responsibility toward others, conditions for ideal communication emerge, making non-compliance with unjust orders possible. These cases raise a critical question for societies in which efficiency of command and the logic of obedience are emphasized: how can individual moral agency and responsibility, as well as collective rational communication, be institutionally protected and expanded?