Custom as a Source of Jewish Law: Some Religious Reflections on David J. Bederman's Custom as a Source of Law

Professor David J. Bederman's seminal work, Custom as a Source of Law, seeks to answer several foundational questions in the fields of legal theory and formation. One of the central concerns: Can custom itself be law? That is to say, can custom alone become binding as custom, acting in ways that we would typically think of as legal, even before it is ever recognized or stamped as obligatory by the institutions that we would normally think of as creating compulsory law, for example, by word of an authoritative legislative body or by way of judicial precedent?