Meanings
- figurativelyA 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.
1983, The Law of the Sea, School of Law, Duke University, page 57, 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.
3 more examples
1938, Proceedings of the Sixth Conference of Teachers of International Law and Related Subjects, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, page 111, 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.
1988, The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea in Southeast Asia: Problems of Implementation, Volume 1, Southeast Asian Programme on Ocean Law, Policy, and Management, page 2, For small countries such as Singapore, they would have the most to lose if the law of the jungle were to prevail.
Our age of what Mark Carney called global rupture is also often described as following the “law of the jungle”, in which the strong do what they can and the weak suffer what they must, with international law shattered and multilateral organisations hollowed out.
2026 June 20, Nathalie Tocci, “Even in this age of global rupture, do not despair: there is still hope for international law”, in The Guardian, →ISSN - fictionUsed 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
Origin
Popularized by Rudyard Kipling in his book, The Jungle Book (1894), in which he used the term in the literal sense of a legal code governing the behavior of his anthropomorphized animals in an Indian jungle. Note also the (possibly derived) colloquial sense of jungle (“a place where people behave ruthlessly, unconstrained by law or morality”).
Full word history & related roots →Translations
Arabic شريعَة الغاب, قانون الغابَة
- شريعَة الغابputative law of a lawless situation
- قانون الغابَةputative law of a lawless situation
Chinese Mandarin 叢林法則 /丛林法则, 弱肉強食 /弱肉强食
- 叢林法則 /丛林法则 (cónglín fǎzé)putative law of a lawless situation
- 弱肉強食 /弱肉强食 (ruòròuqiángshí)putative law of a lawless situation
Dutch wet van de sterkste
- wet van de sterksteputative law of a lawless situation
Finnish viidakon laki
- viidakon lakiputative law of a lawless situation
French loi de la jungle, loi du plus fort
- loi de la jungleputative law of a lawless situation
- loi du plus fortputative law of a lawless situation
German Faustrecht
- Faustrechtputative law of a lawless situation
Hungarian a dzsungel törvénye, farkasok törvénye
- a dzsungel törvényeputative law of a lawless situation
- farkasok törvényeputative law of a lawless situation
- farkastörvényputative law of a lawless situation
Indonesian hukum rimba
- hukum rimbaputative law of a lawless situation
Italian legge della giungla
- legge della giunglaputative law of a lawless situation
Japanese 弱肉強食
- 弱肉強食 (jakuniku kyōshoku)putative law of a lawless situation
Korean 약육강식
- 약육강식 (yagyukgangsik)putative law of a lawless situation
Malay undang-undang rimba
- undang-undang rimbaputative law of a lawless situation
Polish prawo dżungli, prawo pięści
- prawo dżungliputative law of a lawless situation
- prawo pięściputative law of a lawless situation
- wilcze prawoputative law of a lawless situation
Portuguese lei da selva
- lei da selvaputative law of a lawless situation
Romanian legea junglei
- legea jungleiputative law of a lawless situation
Russian зако́н джу́нглей
- зако́н джу́нглей (zakón džúnglej)putative law of a lawless situation
Spanish ley de la selva
- ley de la selvaputative law of a lawless situation
Swedish djungelns lag
- djungelns lagputative law of a lawless situation
Cite this entry
law of the jungle. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/law%20of%20the%20jungle
“law of the jungle.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/law%20of%20the%20jungle. Accessed November 5, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “law of the jungle,” accessed November 5, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/law%20of%20the%20jungle.
Source: law of the jungle on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.