law and order

• law-and-order (attributive use):

law and order (uncountable)

1. (dated, 17th century) The principles under which the world and its components operate.
   • 1653, John Allington, The Grand Conspiracy of the Members Against the Minde, page 13:

     For, as in all Monarchies, it is the Law and Order of God Almighty that Subjects receive from, and not give unto their Soveraigne Lawes

   • 1659, William Ames, The Substance of Christian Religion, page 135:

     But all evill of punishment ariseth from evill of fault and this evill of fault is from the creature itself, breaking the Law and Order that God hath set to it.

   • 1677, Theophilus Gale, The Court of the Gentiles, Or, A Discourse Touching the Original of Human, page 187:

     Neither do Law and Order agree in the reciprocation of Names only, but also in their Natures. Hence Plato oft useth them promiscuously one for the other, and joins them together as exegetic each of other.

2. The strict enforcement of law, statutes, and social conventions.