laws unto themselves

Noun

law unto oneself (countable and uncountable, plural laws unto themselves)

1. One who is free from the constraints of law or rules.
   • If you take away the Law, all things will fall into a Confuſion, every Man will become a law unto himſelf; which, in the depraved Condition of Human Nature, muſt needs produce many great Enormities.1707, Edward Earl of Clarendon [i.e., Edward Hyde, 1st Earl of Clarendon], quoting Charles I of England, The History of the Rebellion and Civil Wars in England, Begun in the Year 1641. […], volume I...
2. One who flouts the law or conventional wisdom; one who ignores rules or logic to behave according to his or her own standards.
   • [T]he law was made to oppress the colored race, so I snapped my finger at the law, an' resolved to come up with it every time I got a chance. I would be a higher law unto myself; for if a white man, when he was wronged, was justified in rightin' himself, even to the takin' of life, I, bein' no whit...1864 December, “City Cousins”, in J. Holmes Agnew, editor, The American Monthly Knickerbocker, Devoted to Literature, Art, Science, and Politics, volume LXIV, number 6, New York, N.Y.: Published at...
3. (dated) One who is lawful in the absence of an enforced law; one who behaves with integrity.
   • For when the Gentiles which haue not the Law, doe by nature the things contained in the Law: theſe hauing not the Law, are a Law vnto themſelues.1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Romans 2:14, column 2