I do think it is ever foolish to consider our own machinations as law.

I wouldn't call explaining phenomena as "law", it's just our silly minds trying to make sense of reality in whatever possible way we can.
It definitely holds predictive capabilities, so I'll accept it. :^) However, there is a much better discipline that is now an addition to taxonomy; Cladistics. I don't know much about it on the same level I do taxonomy, but I know taxonomy now requires it to function much more properly in describing things.