The Philosophy of Law: Private Right, § 32: The Nature and Modes of Ideal Acquisition
I call that mode of Acquisition ideal which involves no Causality in time, and which is founded upon a mere Idea of pure reason. It is nevertheless actual, and not merely imaginary Acquisition; and it is not called real only because the Act of Acquisition is not empirical. This character of the Act arises from the peculiarity that the Person acquiring, acquires from another who either is not yet, and who can only be regarded as a possible Being, or who is just ceasing to be, or who no longer is. Hence such a mode of attaining to Possession is to be regarded as a mere practical Idea of Reason.
There are three Modes of Ideal Acquisition: —
I. Acquisition by USUCAPION; II. Acquisition by INHERITANCE or SUCCESSION;
III. Acquisition by UNDYING MKKIT (meritum im-inortalc), or the Claim by Right to a good name at Death.
These three Modes of Acquisition can, as a matter of fact, only have effect in a public juridical state of existence, but they are not founded merely upon the Civil Constitution or upon arbitrary Statutes; they are already contained in ‘priori in the conception of the state of Nature, and are thus necessarily conceivable prior to their empirical manifestation. The Laws regarding them in the Civil Constitution ought to be regulated by that rational Conception.