Immanuel Kant

“ But, in fact, all such actions fundamentally involve the commission of wrong and injustice, in the highest degree; because they take all validity away from the conception of Right, and give up everything, as it were by law itself, to savage Violence, and thus overthrow the Rights of Men generally. ”

“ But then the question arises as to what the obligation could be founded upon, that would bind any one in a Court of Justice to accept the Oath of another person, as a right and valid proof of the truth of his statements which are to put an end to all dispute. In other words, What obliges me juridically to believe that another person when taking an Oath has any Religion at all, so that I should subordinate or entrust my Right to his Oath? ”

“ The Natural or non-juridical Social state may be viewed as the sphere of Private Right, and the Civil state may be specially regarded as the sphere of Public Right. The latter state contains no more and no other Duties of men towards each other than what may be conceived in connection with the former state; the Matter of Private Right is, in short, the very same in both. The Laws of the Civil state, therefore, only turn upon the juridical Form of the co-existence of men under a common Constitution ”

“ The Judgment, in any case, deciding upon whom the incidence of any loss must fall, cannot therefore be determined from the conditions of the Contract in itself, but only by the Principle of the Court before which it comes, and which can only consider what is certain in the Contract; and the only thing certain is always the fact as to the possession of the Thing as property. ”

“ How and what Acquisition is subjectively conditioned by the Principle of a Public Court. Natural Right, understood simply as that Right which is not statutory, and which is knowable purely a priori, by every man's Reason, will include Distributive Justice as well as Commutative Justice. It is manifest that the latter as constituting the Justice that is valid between Persons in their reciprocal relations of intercourse with one another, must belong to Natural Right. ”

“ Thus the horse which I bought when exposed for sale in the public market under conditions regulated by the Municipal Law, becomes my property if all the conditions of Purchase and Sale have been exactly observed in the transaction; but always under the reservation that the real Owner continues to have the Right of a claim against the Seller, on the ground of his prior unalienated possession. ”

“ He is therefore under no obligation to wait till he acquires practical prudence at his own cost; for he can perceive in himself evidence of the natural Inclination of men to play the master over others, and to disregard the claims of the Right of others, when they feel themselves their superiors by Might or Fraud. And thus it is not necessary to wait for the melancholy experience of actual hostility; the individual is from the first entitled to exercise a rightful compulsion towards those who already threaten him by their very nature. ”

“ The Legislative Power, however, is fundamentally wrong in assigning this authority to the Judicial Power, because even in the Civil state any compulsion with regard to the taking of Oaths is contrary to the inalienable Freedom of Man. ”

“ It is commonly called the Natural state (status naturalis) , or the state of Nature. It is not the ' Social State,' as Achenwall puts it, for this may be in itself an artificial state (status artificialis) , that is to be contradistinguished from the 'Natural' state. The opposite of the state of Nature is the Civil state (status civilis) as the condition of a Society standing under a Distributive Justice. In the state of Nature there may even be juridical forms of Society—such as Marriage, Parental Authority, the Household, and such like. ”

“ For what seems competent as good for the one, is equally valid for the other, as if it were so by mutual agreement. Uti partes de jure suo disponunt, ita jus est. But generally they must be considered as being in the highest state of Wrong, as being and willing to be in a condition which is not juridical; and in which, therefore, no one can be secured against Violence, in the possession of his own. ”

“ The belief underlying these oaths is that an invisible Power—whether it has Understanding or not—by its very nature possesses magical power that can be put into action by such invocations. Such a belief—which is commonly called Religion, but which ought to be called Superstition—is, however, indispensable for the administration of Justice; because, without referring to it, a Court of Justice would not have adequate means to ascertain facts otherwise kept secret, and to determine rights. A Law making an Oath obligatory, is therefore only given in behoof of the judicial Authority. ”

“ Thus among the Rejangs, a heathen people in Sumatra, it is the custom—according to the testimony of Marsden—to swear by the bones of their dead relatives, although they have no belief in a life after death. ”

“ Upon this Principle various Statutory Laws come to be founded which specially aim at laying down the conditions under which alone a mode of Acquisition shall be legitimate, so that the Judge may be able to assign every one his own as easily and certainly as possible. ”

“ An enemy who, on occupying a besieged fortress, instead of honourably fulfilling the conditions of a Capitulation, maltreats the garrison on marching out, or otherwise violates the agreement, cannot complain of injury or wrong if on another occasion the same treatment is inflicted upon themselves. ”

“ And it must be admitted in this connection, that whoever has a purpose of acquiring anything, must regard it as absolutely necessary to investigate whether the Thing which he wishes to acquire does not already belong to another person. ”

“ Official Oaths, which are usually promissory, being taken on entering upon an Office to the effect that the individual has sincere intention to administer his functions dutifully, might well be changed into assertory Oaths, to be taken at the end of a year or more of actual administration, the official swearing to the faithfulness of his discharge of duty during that time. ”

“ For it is not to be understood of itself, that the Owner, besides the use of the Thing, which he has granted to the Receiver, and the detriment that is inseparable from such use, also gives a Guarantee or Warrandice against all damage that may arise from such use. ”