Quote Originally Posted by Zevox View Post
That said, the alignment system obviously has its flaws, and one of the more basic is that the name of the Lawful alignments does give the misconception that they're about following laws, when that's not really the case.
Especially in 5e, where LN and LE are quite clear you might be following the rules of something that isn't the law. Otoh it still fairly strongly implies that you adhere to those rules.

The way I read it is 5e Lawful characters typically adhere to their rules (as appropriate to their alignment behavior description) even when they'd prefer not to. The other alignments don't apply those constraints on themselves, or at least not as consistently.