Definition of "repressive"

Human law is indeed repressive, but repressive on moral principles comprehensively applied to the whole community, and commanding the approval of the moral sense of the governed

1846, Allan Freer, The North British Review

First, the classical rule forbids any unilateral right to use force to overthrow a regime on the sole grounds that it is repressive in character.

1989, Louis Henkin, Right V. Might