In the dialogue "Crito," Socrates is faced with the proposal of
esacpe from prison. In the following conversation he tries to establish whether
an act like that would be just and morally justified, eventually concluding
that by rejecting his sentence and trying to escape from prison he would be
committing unjust and morally unjustified acts. In the end he decided to accpet
his death penalty and execution.
Socrates did not come to this conclusion easily or without reasoning. His
decision to escape from prison came through his hypothetical conversation with
the law and constitution. Socrates reasoned taht lawbreaking is unjust, while
observance of laws is just, because laws are just. He explained that any legal
system is better than no legal system at all, and that a law must be based on
correct reasoning and natural law, otherwise it is not a true and just law but
actaully the misuse of a law. If the laws of Athens were not morally correct
and if one could demonstrate their moral deficiency, then Socrates wouldhave
the moral righ to reject the verdict, and his escape would not be an unjust
act. THe suggestion of Athens' immoral laws made Socrates wonder if the laws
were actually just. All citizens could freely leave Athens with no
consequences, but if the citizen statyed it was then assumed that the citizen
agreed with the existing laws. Since Socrates remained in Athens, and made no
attempt to leave, it was assumed that he considered the laws just and the
result of this was that a type of contract was created between the citizens and
the laws.