 The principle of fair play applies to a political society only if its members can reasonably regard it as a cooperative enterprise that works to their mutual benefit. If it can, the members have an obligation of fair play to do their part in maintaining the enterprise. Because the rule of law is necessary to the maintenance of such a polity – and perhaps even constitutive of it – the principal form of cooperation is abiding by the law. In the absence of overriding circumstances, then, the members of the polity qua cooperative practice must honor their obligation to one another to obey the laws. In this way the principle of fair play provides the grounding for a general obligation to obey the law, at least on the part of those whose polity they can reasonably regard as a cooperative enterprise.