Law of the jungle

"The law of the jungle" (also called jungle law) is an expression that has come to describe a scenario where "anything goes". The Oxford English Dictionary defines the Law of the Jungle as "the code of survival in jungle life, now usually with reference to the superiority of brute force or self-interest in the struggle for survival".

The phrase was introduced in Rudyard Kipling's 1894 work The Jungle Book, where it described the behaviour of wolves in a pack.

The Jungle Book
In his 1894 novel The Jungle Book, Rudyard Kipling uses the term to describe an actual set of legal codes used by wolves and other animals in the jungles of India. Chapter Two of The Second Jungle Book (1895) includes a poem featuring the Law of the Jungle, as known to the wolves and taught to their offspring.

In the 2016 Disney adaptation of the novel, the wolves often recite a poem referred to as the "Law of the Jungle". When Baloo asks Mowgli if he has ever heard a song, he begins to recite it, and the bear tells him that it is not a song, but a propaganda text.