take the law into your own hands
不通过法律自行惩罚，私自治罪
- One day, after years of violent abuse from her husband, she took the law into her own hands.
在经受了多年虐待之后，她终于有一天私自报复了她的丈夫。
be a law unto yourself
自行其是，我行我素
- Charlie, of course, never fills in the record forms but then he's a law unto himself.
查利当然从不填写登记表，他总是自行其是。 - Some of the landowners were a law unto themselves. There was nobody to check their excesses and they exploited the people.
某些土地所有者目无法纪。他们横行霸道，鱼肉乡民。
lay down the law
立规矩；发号施令
- She can't just come into this office and start laying down the law.
她不能一进办公室的门就开始发号施令。
bend the law/rules
变通，通融；放松规定
- Can't you bend the rules a little? I was only a few minutes late.
你就不能稍微变通一下吗？我只不过迟到了几分钟而已。
