Roger kicks off episode 4 by moving the discussion to the citizenry and the rights they have at a time when the government is openly engaged in traitorous behaviour against the state, which brings us to the rights of necessity, meaning you have a right to break the law as a result of your duties as a citizen.
Tim simplifies this term as our right to defend our own life, which both point out is at the heart of every legal system, as there must be a link between law and morality. Ultimately, they are talking about THE foundational principle of law, which is vital for citizens to believe in, otherwise it collapses.
Roger discusses the right we as citizens have to intervene when a person or a class of people are behaving criminally to the detriment of an individual citizen or the collective society, as is the case with the governments’ inaction over the Climate and Ecological Emergency. Tim notably brings up the collective responsibility and duty most people feel towards one another in terms of wearing masks in order to protect the wider society as a whole from the spread of Coronavirus, and that that is both a moral and in some instances a legal responsibility.
This leads us to the right of necessity argument used in court by Roger and his co-accused Ian after they spray painted one of the halls in King's College London in order to get the university to divest from fossil fuels. A case they won with a unanimous verdict of not guilty being returned by the jury. Tim highlights the importance of this case because Roger and Ian chose not to have a lawyer and instead relied upon the judgement of ordinary citizens chosen by sortition, which he extrapolates to Citizens Assemblies, which essentially are simply a larger representation of how a jury system works. Having the right to safeguard your life, your fellow citizens and your country is an inalienable right and to say otherwise is a complete perversion of our legal system.
We learn that the right of necessity in the context of the Climate and Ecological Emergency is not only a moral and ethical right, but that it is in fact legal given the death project being engaged in as a result of the criminal behaviour of the government and the corporate class. Tim extrapolates from a typical example of the right to self defense when an individual is being attacked to the right to revolution when a government is committing an act of treason that threatens the entire state.