 Given the normative character of Cicero’s enquiry, it is not difficult to see why law should be identified with right reason. Rationality, after all, is itself a normative concept. Not every piece of thinking counts as rational, and rationality can be exercised imperfectly and so, at least in principle, perfectly. If one reasons correctly about the relevant matters in the case of what is just and unjust, then it seems fair to conclude that one will enunciate standards against which, for example, actual laws will be required to measure up. Law in the normative sense is ‘what distinguishes just things from unjust’ (2.13).