ABSTRACT
The permissive law of practical reason plays a decisive role in the Doctrine of Justice. Immanuel Kant exhaustively deals with the permissive law in “Postulate of Practical Reason with Regard to Rights,” where the postulate itself is called a “permissive law of practical reason.” This chapter discusses the formal elements of the permissive law, as Kant presents, but does not yet define them in the “Introduction to the Metaphysics of Morals.” It focuses on the historical context in which Kant wrote the Doctrine of Justice. The chapter shows that why for Kant himself the permissive law is a power conferring norm which bestows certain moral capacities on persons. It also focuses on the idea ‘prior tempore, potior iure’, which is the principle that enables to transfer into reality the legal institutions the permissive law establishes. The chapter claims that Kant anticipates the universal and united will to provide a deeper foundation for this idea.
