The validity of the last element in the process of acquisition, as
that on which the conclusion that "the external object is mine" rests,
is what makes the possession valid as a purely rational and
juridical possession (possessio noumenon). It is founded upon the fact
that, as all these acts are juridical, they consequently proceed
from the practical reason, and therefore, in the question as to what
is right, abstraction may be made of the empirical conditions
involved, and the conclusion, "the external object is mine," thus
becomes a correct inference from the external fact of sensible
possession to the internal right of rational possession.
The original primary acquisition of an external object of the action
of the will, is called occupancy. It can only take place in
reference to substances or corporeal things. Now when this
occupation of an external object does take place, the act presupposes,
as a condition of such empirical possession, its priority in time
before the act of any other who may also be willing to enter upon
occupation of it. Hence the legal maxim: "qui prior tempore, potior
jure." Such occupation as original or primary is, further, the
effect only of a single or unilateral will; for were a bilateral or
twofold will requisite for it, it would be derived from a contract
of two or more persons with each other, and consequently it would be
based upon what another or others had already made their own.
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