Abstract
In this paper, we determine whether illegal hunting should be construed as a crime of dissent. Using the Nordic countries as a case study where protest-driven, illegal hunting of protected wolves is on the rise, we reconsider the crime using principles of civil disobedience. We invoke the conditions of intentionality, nonevasion, dialogic effort, non-violence and appeal to parameters of reasonable disagreement about justice and situate the Nordic illegal hunting phenomenon at a nexus between conscientious objection, assisted disobedience and everyday resistance. This examination leads us to contend that the crime has heretofore received an inadequate response limited to punishment and deterrence. This contention finds support in the worsening predicaments of illegal hunting following harsh sanctions and stigmatization. Although hunters publicize injustices through their crimes, we find that killing wolves as a means to deliberative ends disqualifies hunters’ dissent as legitimate disobedience, creating an obligation of deliberative uptake on the part of society. Nonetheless, in a critical contribution to the field of criminal justice, we argue that it is instead the conditions of deliberative suboptimality experienced by hunters that create this obligation of uptake. Hence, in order to fulfill this obligation, we contend that the burden falls on regulatory agencies to better articulate the justifications for the policies that coerce hunters. We also advocate creating novel institutions to provide hunters with effective opportunities for contesting wildlife conservation directives.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Abizadeh, A. “Democratic Theory and Border Coercion: No Right to Unilaterally Control Your Own Borders.” Political Theory 36 (2008): 37–65.
Allen, M. “Effective Opportunity and Democratic Deliberation.” Politics 27 (2) (2007): 83–90.
Allen, M. “Civil Disobedience and Terrorism: Testing the Limits of Deliberative Democracy.” Theoria no. 56 (118) (2009): 15–39.
Archer, J.E. “Poaching gangs and violence: the urban-rural divide in nineteenth-century Lancashire.” British Journal of Criminology no. 39 (1) (1999): 25–38.
Arendt, H. Crises of the Republic. (New York: Harcourt Brace & Company, 1972).
Arts, K., Fischer. A., van der Wal, R. “Common stories of reintroduction: A discourse analysis of documents supporting animal reintroductions to Scotland.” Land Use Policy no. 29 (4) (2012): 911–920.
Bedau, H.A. “On civil disobedience.” Journal of Philosophy no. 58 (21) (1961): 653–665.
Bisi, J., Kurki, S., Svensberg, M. Liukkonen, T. “Human dimensions of wolf (Canis lupus) conflicts in Finland.” European Journal of Wildlife Research no. 53 (4) (2007): 304–314.
Bisi, J., Kurki. S. The wolf debate in Finland: Expectations and objectives for the management of the wolf population at regional and national level. Seinäjoki, University of Helsinki (2008).
Bohman, J. Democracy Across Borders: From Demos to Demoi. (Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 2007).
Brownlee, K. Conscience and Conviction: The Case for Civil Disobedience. (Oxford Legal Philosophy, 2012).
Brymer, R. The emergence and maintenance of a deviant sub-culture: The case of hunting/poaching subculture. Anthropologica 33, (1991): 177–194.
Dunder, A. Misstänkt träder fram i Lillhärdalfallet “Lagen öppnar för godtycke.”(Jaktojägare, 2014).
European Commission on the Environment. The Habitats Directive (Council Directive 92/43/EEC, 1992).
Evans, J.C. With Respect for Nature: Living as Part of the Natural World, SUNY series in Environmental Philosophy and Ethics. (Albany: State University of New York Press, 2005).
Filteau, M. “Deterring Defiance: ‘Don’t Give a Poacher a Reason to Poach.’” Journal of Rural Criminology 1 (2012): 236–255.
Forsyth, C., Gramling, R. Wooddell, G. “The game of poaching: Folk crimes in southwest Louisiana.” Society & Natural Resources no. 11 (1) (1998): 25–38.
Franklin, B.H. Prison Literature in America: The Victim as Criminal and Artist. (Penguin Books, 1998).
Gould, C. “The human right to democracy and its global import,” in Human Rights: The Hard Questions, Eds. Cindy Holder and David Reidy (Cambridge University Press, 2014).
Green, L. Civil Disobedience and Academic Freedom. Osgoode Hall Law Journal 41 (2/3) (2003): 381–405.
Hajer, M., Versteeg, W. “A decade of discourse analysis of environmental politics: Achievements, challenges, perspectives.” Journal of Environmental Policy & Planning no. 7 (3) (2005): 175–184.
Hall, M.R. Guilty But Civilly Disobedient: Reconciling Civil Disobedience and the Rule of Law. Cardozo Law Review 28, (1) (2007).
Hallgren, L., Westberg, L. Adaptive management? Observations of knowledge coordination in the communication practice of Swedish game management. Wildlife Biology (2015). doi:10.2981/wlb.00005.
Healey, P. “The Pragmatic Tradition in Planning Thought.” Journal of Planning Education and Research no. 28 (3) (2009): 277–292.
Holmes, G. “Protection, Politics and Protest: Understanding Resistance to Conservation.” Conservation and Society 5 (2007): 184–201.
Holmgren, C. Vargjakten kan bli fråga för EU-domstolen. (Sveriges Radio, 2013).
Hommen, S. Vargtiken i Junsele – följ ärendet (Swedish Environmental Protection Agency, 2014).
Jönsson, J. 2014. Ny Eftersöksbojkott i Vargens Spår. (Vargfakta, 2014).
Liberg, O., Chapron, G.,Wabakken, P., Pedersen, H.C., Thompson, H., Sand, H. “Shoot, shovel and shut up: cryptic poaching slows restoration of a large carnivore in Europe.” Proceedings of the Royal Society of Biological Sciences, 282 (1799) (2012): 910–915.
Linnell, J.D. “From conflict to co-existence: Insights from multi-disciplinary research into the relationship between people, large carnivores and institutions.” (LCIE, European Commission, 2013).
Lovell, J. Crimes of Dissent: Civil Disobedience, Criminal Justice and the Politics of Conscience. (New York: New York University Press, 2009).
Matti, S., Sandström, A. “The Rationale Determining Advocacy Coalitions: Examining Coordination Networks and Corresponding Beliefs.” Policy Studies Journal 39 (3) (2011): 385–410.
Matti, S., Sandström, A. “The Defining Elements of Advocacy Coalitions: Continuing the Search for Explanations for Coordination and Coalition Structures.” Review of Policy Research 30 (2) (2013): 240–257.
McCauley. C., Moskalenko, S. “Mechanisms of Political Radicalization: Pathways Toward Terrorism.” Terrorism and Political Violence no. 20 (3) (2008): 415–433.
McCausland, C., O’Sullivan, S. Brenton, S. “Trespass, Animals and Democratic Engagement.” Res Publica no. 19 (3) (2013): 205–221.
Mischi, J. “Contested rural activities: Class, politics and shooting in the French countryside.” Ethnography no. 14 (1) (2013): 64–84. doi:10.1177/1466138112440980.
Moriarty, P.V., Woods, M. “Hunting Does Not Equal Predation: An Instance of the Compatibility of Animal Welfare and Environmental Ethics.” Environmental Ethics 19 (1997): 391–404.
Nurse, A. “Policing Wildlife: Perspectives on Criminality in Wildlife Crime.” (Papers from the British Criminology Conference, London: British Society of Criminology, Volume 11, 2011.).
Oinaala, S. Suden tappaja. Me susirajan tällä puolella olemme kovin huolissamme petokannoista. Niin on sotkamolainen Kari Tikkunenkin. Helsingin Sanomat. (2012).
Palmer, C.A. “What (if anything) do we owe wild animals?,” Between the Species 16 (1) (2013): 15–38.
Partridge, E. “What Do We Owe Posterity?,” Introduction to Responsibilities to Future Generations, Ed. Ernest Partridge (Buffalo: Prometheus Books, 1981).
Passas, N. “Political crime and political offender: Theory and practice.” Liverpool Law Review no. 8 (1) (1986): 23–36.
Peterson, A. “Policing Conscientious Politics at Transnational Summits: Darth Vader or the Keystone Cops” in The Policing of Transnational Protest, Eds. D. Della Porta., A Peterson and H. Reiter (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2006: 97–116).
Peterson, M.N. An approach for demonstrating the social legitimacy of hunting. Wildlife Society Bulletin 32 (2004): 310–321.
Pott, M. Insamling för misstänkta Jägare. (Jaktojägare, 2014).
Rawls, J. A Theory of Justice. Revised ed. (Belknap Press, 1999).
Raz, J. The Authority of Law. Essays on Law and Morality. (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1979).
Rousseau, J.J. The Social Contract or Principles of Political Right. Translated by G.D.H. Cole (Public Domain, 1762).
Rytterstedt, E. När stockholmarna åkt hem kan vi släppa lite på reglerna En analys av norrländska jägares kulturella förklaringar till jaktbrott. (Bachelor thesis at the Department of Sociology, Lund University, 2013).
Sabl, A. “Looking Forward to Justice: Rawlsian Civil Disobedience and its Non-Rawlsian Lessons.” Journal of Political Philosophy no. 9 (3) (2001): 331–349.
Salenvall, P. Den regionaliserade rovdjursförvaltningen: Om demokratisk legitimitet. (Bachelor thesis at the Luleå Tekniska Universitet, 2011).
Sandström, C., Ericsson, G. Om svenskars inställning till rovdjursförvaltning. Report 2009: 2 Umeå University, Faculty of Social Sciences, Department of Political Science (2009).
Scott, J.C. Weapons of the Weak: Everyday Forms of Peasant Resistance. (Yale University Press, 1985).
Scruton, R. Animal Rights and Wrongs. (Claridge Press, 2000).
Sethi, S.A., Hilborn, R. “Interactions between poaching and management policy affect marine reserves as conservation tools.” Biological Conservation no. 141 (2) (2008): 506–516.
Sjölander-Lindqvist, A. Social-Natural Landscape Reorganised: Swedish Forest-edge Farmers and Wolf Recovery. Conservation and Society 7 (2) (2009): 130–140.
Sjölander-Lindqvist, A., Karlsson, M., Cinque, S. Att jaga varg: En studie av 2010 års licensjakt i Sverige. Report for Center for Public Sector Research, Gothenberg University (2010).
Sjölander-Lindqvist, A. “Predators in ‘Agri-environmental’ Sweden: Rural Heritage and Resistance Against Wolf Propagation,” in Survival and Sustainability, Eds. Hüseyin Gökçekus, Umut Türker and James W. La Moreaux. Springer Berlin Heidelberg (2011): 15–27.
Smart, B. “Defining Civil Disobedience,” in Civil Disobedience in Focus, Ed. Hugo A. Bedau (London: Routledge, 1991).
Smith, W. “Policing Civil Disobedience.” Political Studies no. 60 (4) (2012): 826–842.
Thompson, E.P. Whigs and Hunters: The origin of the Black Act. (London: Breviary Stuff Publications, 1975).
Tillhagen, C.H. Allmogejakt i Sverige. (Stockholm: LTs förlag, 1987).
Vanderheiden, S. “Eco-terrorism or Justified Resistance? Radical Environmentalism and the ‘War on Terror.’” Politics & Society no. 33 (3) (2005): 425–447.
von Essen, E. “Democracy and Sustainable Development in Wildlife Management: From ‘stakeholders’ to ‘citizens’ in the Swedish wolf restoration process (Master’s thesis at the Uppsala University, 2012).
von Essen, E, Hansen, H., Nordström Källström, H, Peterson, M.N. and Peterson, T. “Deconstructing the Poaching Phenomenon: A Review of Typologies for Understanding Illegal Hunting.” British Journal of Criminology, 54 (4) (2014a): 632–651.
von Essen, E., Hansen, H.P., Nordström Källström, H., Peterson, M.N., Peterson, T. “The Radicalization of Rural Resistance: How Hunting Counterpublics in the Nordic Countries Contribute to Illegal Hunting.” Journal of Rural Studies. SI: Rural Crime. (2014b).
Wolff, R.P. In Defense of Anarchism. (Harper & Row, 1970).
Zimmerman, B., Nelson, L., Wabakken, P., Sand, H. Liberg, O. “Behavioral responses of wolves to roads: scale-dependent ambivalence”. Behavioral Ecology (2014).
Zinn, H. Disobedience and Democracy: Nine Fallacies on Law and Order. (New York: Random House/Vintage, 1968).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
von Essen, E., Allen, M.P. Reconsidering Illegal Hunting as a Crime of Dissent: Implication for Justice and Deliberative Uptake. Criminal Law, Philosophy 11, 213–228 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11572-014-9364-8
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11572-014-9364-8