"Law looks to the past as it speaks to present needs. In the adjudication of every dispute, law traffics in the slippery terrain of memory, as different versions of past events are presented for authoritative judgment. Moreover, in the production of supposedly definitive statements of what the law is in the form of judicial opinions, law reconstructs its own past, tracing out lines of precedent to their “compelling” conclusion. The relationship of law to history is thus complex and multidirectional."