Wherever Law ends, Tyranny begins.

John Locke’s line is associated with his political theory in the wake of England’s seventeenth‑century constitutional crises—civil war, the Restoration, and especially the Glorious Revolution (1688–89). In his Second Treatise of Government, Locke argues that legitimate political power is fiduciary: rulers are entrusted to govern for the public good under known, standing laws. When a ruler acts outside or against the law—by arbitrary will, force, or prerogative unconstrained by the common rule—he ceases to act as a lawful magistrate and becomes a tyrant. The maxim thus serves Locke’s broader justification for resistance and the right of a people to replace a government that breaks its trust.

The aphorism draws a sharp boundary between lawful authority and mere domination. For Locke, law is not simply an instrument of the ruler; it is the condition that makes political power legitimate, because it binds governors and governed alike and aims at the preservation of liberty and property. When law “ends”—whether through suspension, selective enforcement, or rule by decree—power becomes arbitrary, and arbitrariness is the essence of tyranny. The quote therefore functions as a warning: the erosion of legal constraints is not a technical defect but a moral and political transformation, turning government from a protector of rights into a threat to them.

1) “Wherever law ends, tyranny begins.”
2) “Where law ends, tyranny begins.”