The Phrase Today
"A law unto themselves" is a standard English description of individuals, groups, or institutions that operate outside normal rules and accountability structures. Journalists apply it to rogue executives, rogue nations, and unruly celebrities. Parents use it of teenagers. It carries a note of exasperation or disapproval - the person or entity refuses to be governed by the standards that bind everyone else.
Biblical Origin
The phrase comes from Romans 2:14 in the King James Bible: "For when the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, these, having not the law, are a law unto themselves." Paul's argument is deeply theological: even those outside the Mosaic covenant possess a conscience-shaped moral awareness that functions like an interior law. The Greek phrase is heautois eisin nomos - "they are a law to themselves." Paul's purpose was inclusive, even generous: Gentiles need not be condemned merely for lacking the Torah because natural law written on the heart provides moral guidance.
Semantic Drift
The drift from Paul's meaning is striking. Paul used the phrase positively - these Gentiles demonstrate moral awareness without external legislation. Modern English uses it negatively, implying self-serving exemption from rules rather than morally guided self-regulation. The shift occurred gradually as the phrase detached from its theological context. By the eighteenth century, when writers like Edmund Burke deployed similar language, the sense had shifted from internal moral authority to defiant rejection of external authority.
Historical Usage
The phrase appeared in English legal and political writing from the seventeenth century onward as a way of describing persons or bodies that claimed jurisdiction over themselves. Parliamentary debates about royal prerogative often invoked variations of it. John Locke's political theory engaged indirectly with the concept of self-legislation, and the phrase became a useful shorthand in liberal political philosophy for the danger of unaccountable power. In Victorian reform literature, monopolistic companies and corrupt police forces were routinely described as laws unto themselves, connecting moral critique to civic journalism.
Cross-Linguistic Reach
Romans 2:14 is cited in virtually every Western legal tradition as the scriptural basis for natural law theory. Thomas Aquinas built his account of lex naturalis partly on this text, and natural law theory subsequently shaped both Catholic social teaching and Enlightenment political philosophy. The concept of conscience as an interior law governing even those outside positive legislation remains fundamental to international human rights law, where violations are condemned even in states that have not ratified relevant treaties.
Cultural Usage
The phrase is particularly productive in political rhetoric. Margaret Thatcher used variants of it to describe trade unions in the 1970s. American critics of Wall Street applied it to investment banks after the 2008 financial crisis. In fiction, the archetype of the anti-hero who operates outside society's norms - the lone detective, the vigilante, the outlaw - embodies the modern secular version of the phrase. The irony that Paul's original formulation praised the conscience-governed Gentile has been almost entirely erased: "a law unto themselves" is now invariably a reproach.