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The phrase law of the jungle (often preceded by the definite article the), also jungle law, designates the principle that, where an effective legal system is absent or does not apply, brute strength and self-interested ruthlessness are what determine success, ownership, etc.

This phrase occurs, for example, in the following from Ex-French PM Dominique de Villepin launches party with view to 2027 presidential run, by Angelique Chrisafis, published in The Guardian (London and Manchester, England) of Tuesday 24^th June 2025—the French statesman Dominique de Villepin (born 1953) was the Minister of Foreign Affairs of France from 2002 to 2004, and the Prime Minister of France from 2005 to 2007:

De Villepin told France Inter radio on Tuesday that the world was becoming a more dangerous place “because we’re now in a world without rules, without international law, where the law of the jungle, the law of the strongest prevails”.

The phrase law of the jungle, also jungle law, has often been ascribed to the British poet, short-story writer and novelist Joseph Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936), who used it in The Jungle Book (London: Macmillan and Co., 1894).

But, in fact, in American English and in the form law of the jungle, this phrase predates Kipling’s book. This phrase was in particular used by the Canadian clergyman Maurice Scollard Baldwin (1836-1904), who was, from 1883 to 1904, the Anglican Bishop of Huron, London, Ontario—cf., below, quotations 2, 4 & 5.

These are, in chronological order, the earliest occurrences of the phrase law of the jungle that I have found:

1-: From The Weekly Leader (Bloomington, Illinois, USA) of Thursday 9^th May 1878 [page 1, column 9]—Moncure D. Conway (1832-1907) was a U.S. clergyman, abolitionist and author—the passage that is quoted from his letter does not contain the phrase law of the jungle:

Moncure D. Conway, in a letter to the Cincinnati Commercial, expresses the conviction that there will be no war between England and Russia, but says the present situation is menacing enough to stagger that apparently optimistic opinion. If there is war it will be the triumph of all the baser elements in Europe—law of the jungle overwhelming the forces of civilization. He says:
“In England we are now looking upon the malign face of rampant rowdyism and reckless unreason. [&c.].”

2-: From a transcript of the sermon that Maurice Scollard Baldwin delivered on Sunday 17^th August 1890 at St. George’s Anglican Church, in Winnipeg, Manitoba—transcript published in The Winnipeg Daily Tribune (Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada) of Monday 18^th August 1890 [page 4, column 5]:

Crowds were seen going to church, but the people were apt to make terrible and grievous mistakes in their judgment. […] Profession was not rare, but the reproduction of the character of Jesus Christ was. Many men and women returned evil for evil, blow for blow, and detract the character of those who speak sneeringly of themselves. This was the law of the jungle.

3-: From The Making of a Man (New York: Cassell Publishing Company, [1892]), by the U.S. clergyman and author James Wideman Lee (1849-1919) [chapter 1, part 3, page 70]:

The fierce competition we see in the commercial world to-day is the attempt to re-enact, in business life, the principle of natural selection, or “the survival of the fittest in the struggle for existence.” This is the law of the jungle, but not of the social realm.

4-: From a transcript of the speech that Maurice Scollard Baldwin delivered during the meeting of the Society of Christian Endeavour that was held in London, Ontario, on Friday 20^th October 1892—transcript published in The Globe (Toronto, Ontario, Canada) of Friday 21^st October 1892 [page 2, column 3]:

An average Christian spoke evil of his neighbor, gave detraction for detraction and blow for blow. He liked those who liked him and disliked those who disliked him. The law of the jungle dominated the conduct of the most professed of Christians.

5-: From a transcript of the sermon that Maurice Scollard Baldwin delivered on Thursday 10^th November 1892 at the seventh annual convention of the Christian Workers of America, held in Tremont Temple, Boston, Massachusetts—transcript published in The Vermont Chronicle (Montpelier, Vermont, USA) of Friday 25^th November 1892 [page 1, column 3]:

“I am he that liveth and was dead, and behold I am alive forevermore,” says Christ. If we were to see Christ he would look like one that had been dead, that had been buried and had risen again. A true Christian looks like a man who has died, and been buried, and has risen again. There are so few that look like men who have died! The great mass of Christians exhibit the life of the flesh. You strike a man and he strikes you. This is the law of the jungle! You see a church member and he says this man has offended me and I must drag him through all the courts of the land. Stop! you see here a man who has not died.