Laws of the Wild.

One definition of law is that it is a system of rules and guidelines enforced through social institutions to govern behaviour. There are certain natural laws too, whose governing body appears to be human nature in the wild - or maybe "fate". These laws and rules happen automatically, we don't need to strive not to fall foul of them, most will automatically fall foul of us, and frequently.
Some are well known, such as

Murphy's Law, the all-encompassing one : Anything that can go wrong will go wrong. Some versions add insult to injury with... "and at the worst possible time."

More of these natural laws are:

Occam’s Razor, not so much a law, I guess, as a handy suggestion, but it is also known as the law of economy or law of parsimony, a principle stated by William of Ockham (1285–1347/49): “Plurality should not be posited without necessity.” The principle gives precedence to simplicity - of two competing theories, the simpler explanation is to be preferred. In other words, any time there are several hypotheses that could explain an observation, phenomenon or event, it is usually best to start with the simplest one. There's an opposite reaction to everything though, therefore:

Occam's Duct Tape - the opposite mental process to Occam's razor: to avoid simplicity, to leave no entity unmultiplied and to make as many unnecessary assumptions as possible when pondering an idea — this is sometimes referred to, jocularly, as Occam's duct tape.
Or:
Crabtree's Bludgeon - an observation which serves as a foil to Occam's razor, characterizing a very different cognitive process exhibited in certain kinds of people, which states:
”No set of mutually inconsistent observations can exist for which some human intellect cannot conceive a coherent explanation, however complicated."

There's DeVault's Razor, which strips down Occam's even further:
"There are only two laws:
Someday you will die.
If you read this, you are not dead yet."

Moving on...

Jimmy Buffett's Law of Sanity:
If we weren't all crazy, we would go insane.


Sattinger's Law: It works better when you plug it in.


Onward to
Parkinson's Law: Work expands to fill the time available for its completion.

The Peter Principle: In any hierarchy, every individual tends to rise to his level of incompetence.
Corollary: Work is done by those individuals who have not yet risen to their level of incompetence.

Not forgetting -
The Rule of the Great:
When someone you greatly admire and respect appears to be thinking deep thoughts, they probably are thinking about lunch.

Then we have


Evans' Law of Political Perfidy: When our friends get into power, they aren't our friends anymore.


Jacquin's Postulate: No man's life, liberty or property are safe while the legislature is in session.

Alley's Axiom: Justice always prevails ... three times out of seven.

Specht's Meta-Law: Under any conditions, anywhere, whatever you are doing, there is some ordinance under which you can be booked.

And

George Carlin's Driving Law: Everyone driving slower than you is an idiot. Everyone driving faster than you is a maniac.

Oliver's Law of Location: No matter where you go, there you are.


Then there's

Damon Runyon's Law:
The race is not always to the swift nor the battle to the strong, but that's the way to bet.

My own blog even has its own law:
Unwin's Learning Curve: Experience is what enables us to make a new mistake each time.


Oh! - And there's always Cole's Law: Thinly sliced cabbage.

Also I've discovered: Twilight's Obscure Law of Non-supply & Demand : when a woman finds a shade of lipstick that's just right, or a bra that fits exactly, or shoes that are always comfortable - these will have been discontinued the next time she goes shopping for 'em.


My thanks to the several "law" sources used when compiling a version of this post years ago - most of the links I saved no longer work - there's probably a law about that too!