Bad laws are the worst sort of tyranny.

Burke’s aphorism draws a sharp distinction between tyranny as mere personal despotism and tyranny embedded in legal forms. A “bad law” can coerce with the appearance of legitimacy, enlist courts and officials in its enforcement, and habituate citizens to injustice as normal procedure. In that sense, law’s authority—its claim to be impartial and binding—can make oppression more pervasive and harder to resist than arbitrary rule. The line reflects Burke’s broader concern that political power must be restrained by moral principle, custom, and prudence; when legislation departs from justice and the public good, it becomes an instrument of domination rather than order.