Parshat Pinchas - When is the law allowed to be overlooked?

This Parshah is named after Pinchas, who, at the end of last week's sedra slew a prince of the tribe of Simeon for cohabitating with a midianitish woman. The Torah seems to praise him for doing so - for by his action he did what few dared to do, and stop the illegal sexual congress between the people of Israel and the tribe of Midian. However, there is more than just this to consider. When he did act, he did so out of blind fury. Jewish law is very strict upon the point that capital punishment - or, indeed, any punishment, is not to be meted out without the consent of a court of judges. By taking his action, was not Pinchas moving without the backing of such a court ?

Certainly, at the time, there were religious leaders within Israel who sought to bring Pinchas to trial for his action, which they saw as one man taking the law into his own hands. However, we read that G-d Himself stepped in to stop such a punishment.

Why did G-d step in ? Those leaders were certainly right to want to punish Pinchas for what they saw as a wanton act of rebellion, however G-d, omniscient could see into Pinchas's soul and see that his act was fuelled only by his love for Hashem. From this we may conclude that such an act is admissable when done only for the love of G-d. And who will judge if this really was the case ? Only the true judge, G-d himself.