Utilizing data from interviews with students from kindergarten through college, the authors attempt to reconstruct developing ideas of 'rule', 'justice', and 'compliance'. Their conclusions are optimistic for society: there is within the individual the potential for analytic, legal reasoning which is consistent with the attributes of a democratic, just legal system. Of interest to analysts might be the study of the evolution of such internalized systems. Younger children interviewed regarded rules as a series of admonitions rigidly followed to avoid negative environmental reactions; the older youths saw rules as reflecting internalized concepts of social order and felt that there was more flexibility in following and interpreting established patterns.