This is one of the mba.com issue essay prompts I was not able to find a book with an example. If you have a book that has an example essay for this argument essay, please let me know!

"The primary responsibility of citizens is to obey their nation's civil and criminal laws."

The author states that he believes that a citizen's primary responsibility is to obey their own nation's laws. Although I agree to some degree with this statement, the statement leaves many questions open.

First of all, a nation's laws are important. They provide an underlining structure and often display the values a nation is made of. They also provide an outlook into what happens if these laws are broken, and therefore are used more or less successful as a deterrent or to entice people to follow them. Since these laws have been developed over centuries, they hardly provide a current list of all citizens' primary responsibilities. I am not sure if there are primary responsibilities, but if there are than they most likely include family values, religious values, heritage values and to some part the local laws.

Secondly, the underlining philosophical question of what is a humans primary responsibility within a nation may end up in a discussion about freedom and totalitarian systems.

The statement becomes even more questionable when one considers the amount of citizens that live in countries other than their own. Whose laws should they follow? According to the author, they should follow their nation's laws. That could lead to major problems for example for German citizens following their own speeding regulations on US highways.

Overall, I would disagree with the statement for the reasons mentioned. If the author would change the sentence so it refers to people obeying the laws of the country they are in, I would reconsider.