ABSTRACT
One may quickly fall into the trap of believing Immanuel Kant’s claim because of his arguments in the Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals. This chapter defines the nature of a contractual claim within Kant’s legal theory by examining Kant’s discussion at the beginning of “Private Law of the External Mine and Thine.” It discusses the nature of the acquisition and shows that the parties to a contract establish the contractual claim through their united self-legislating wills. The chapter addresses why the bilateral wills of two contracting parties can legislate so that the contractual claims they generate are recognized by all and enforceable in a court of law under a system of distributive justice. It explains how Kant answers the question “Why Must I Keep Promise?” and why he insists that any proof of the Categorical Imperative that “I must” is impossible.
