Abstract
Traditionalists locate the source of normativity in history and community. The answer to the Kantian question of right, for the traditionalist, is determined by the answer to the question of fact: norms have authority because of the social practices of community members, present and past. This has intuitive appeal: when a child asks why she should do this, she is told, "Because that's what people do' or "Because that's the way it has always been done.' The appeal to community and history functions as a conversation-stopper, an appeal to an authority which cannot be challenged.1 For traditionalist jurisprudence, the correct ruling of a court is wholly determined by precedent, by past rulings of the courts.2