Abstract
In response to the post-2018 rise in climate protest, many liberal democratic countries have witnessed the criminalisation and repression of environmental activists. Instead of assessing macro-level effects of repression on activism, this paper explores the micro-level responses to surveillance, arrest, fines, and imprisonment. Drawing on socio-legal scholarship that understands the law as socially constructed rather than objective and external, this paper delves into the black box of political repression, offering an examination of how climate activists respond to state sanctions. Analysing a survey of 1,375 Extinction Rebellion UK activists through thematic analysis and quantitative coding, we demonstrate that individual biography and narrativisations of the law lead activists to forge ahead, pull back, or act strategically in response to repression.