84. Since the will is in itself universal, possession (§54) and contract, in themselves and in their different kinds, and also all the various manifestations of my will imply a reference to other rights at law. Since these rights are so external and varied, several different persons may have a right to one and the same object, each basing his claim to ownership on his right at law. Thus arise collisions.
85. A collision, in which the object is claimed on legal grounds, occurs in the region of civil law, and recognizes the law as the universal arbiter. The thing is admitted to belong to him who has the right to it. The legal contest merely finds whether a thing is mine or another ’s. This is a purely negative judgment, in which the predicate “mine” negates only the particular.
86. In law-suits the recognition of right is bound up with some private interest or view opposed to right. Against this mere appearance, intrinsic right, which is in fact implied in it (§85), comes on the scene as a reality purposed and demanded. This right, however, is demanded only abstractly, because the will as particular is not freed from direct contact with its private interest, and does not aim at the universal. Still, the law is here a recognized reality, as against which the contending parties must renounce their private views and interests.
Addition.— That which is intrinsically right has a definite ground, and I defend my wrong, which I maintain to be right, also on some ground. It is the nature of the finite and particular to make room for accidents. Collisions must occur, since we are at the stage of the finite. The first form of wrong negates only the particular will; but pays respect to the general right; it is thus the slightest of all forms of wrong. When I say that a rose is not red, I still admit that the object has colour. I thus do not deny the species, colour, but only the particular colour, red. It is the same here with right. Everybody wills the right, and for him the right only shall take place; his wrong consists in his holding that what he wills is right.