Philippa Foot is most known for her invention of the Trolley Problem thought experiment in the 1960s. A lesser known variation of hers is as follows:
Suppose that a judge is faced with rioters demanding that a culprit be found for a certain crime. The rioters are threatening to take bloody revenge on a particular section of the community. The real culprit being unknown, the judge sees himself as able to prevent the bloodshed from the riots only by framing some innocent person and having them executed.
These are the only two options: execute an innocent person for a crime they did not commit, or let people riot in the streets knowing there will be loss of life. If you were the judge, what would you do?
This is a utilitarian dilemma. A broader, consequentialist dilemma could ask whether having an absolutist stance toward certain rules or rights, like the right to a due process of law, is more useful than saving a person or small group.
Put another way, thinking past the dilemma in this situation, it could be said that the practical consequences of a judge violating that stance towards rights, and by extension the reliability of law, might or might not outweigh the potential benefits of trying to preserve life and property.