law of the jungle

Noun

law of the jungle

1. (figuratively) A putative law dictating that one serves one's own interest to the extent that one can, in any situation where legal authority is absent or generally ignored; self-interested behaviour that emerges in the absence of law; lawlessness.
   • In the next war there will be no international law or 'comity of nations' but merely the law of the jungle, and of primeval man—each for himself and the devil take the next man.1938, Proceedings of the Sixth Conference of Teachers of International Law and Related Subjects, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, page 111
   • To bring order to this law of the jungle at sea was a particular reason for the Law of the Sea Conference, especially insofar as the United States was concerned.1983, The Law of the Sea, School of Law, Duke University, page 57
2. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see law, jungle.
   • The Law of the Jungle — which is by far the oldest law in the world — has arranged for almost every kind of accident that may befall the Jungle People, till now its code is as perfect as time and custom can make it.1895 November, Rudyard Kipling, “How Fear Came”, in The Second Jungle Book, London; New York, N.Y.: Macmillan and Co., →OCLC, page 1