Quaker Roots in Jim Corbett’s Nonviolent Sanctuary

This is an accepted article with a DOI pre-assigned that is not yet published.This article will reveal significant parallels between Jim Corbett’s (1933-2001) theory of nonviolent direct action, which he called civil initiative, and the pacifist theoretical work conducted by Quaker figures associated with the Pacifist Research Bureau (PRB). Based in Philadelphia, the PRB operated from 1942-49. The Quaker legal scholar Harrop A. Freeman led the Bureau and had a long academic career at Cornell University from 1945-74. Freeman became a leading exponent of revolutionary secular pacifism in the 1960s and formulated a legal theory justifying the legality of nonviolent revolution. The article argues that Jim Corbett drew upon theoretical elements of Quaker nonviolent direct action that were featured in PRB publications and, more specifically, upon Freeman’s theory of the legality of nonviolent revolution

Jurisprudence · Legal history · Library Science and Information Systems