The main division of "The Philosophy of Right" corresponds to the stages in the development of "the Idea of the absolutely free will":
Abstract Right: The realm of objective-freedom (universal-will). Similar to Kant's categorical imperatives. Represents the aspect of "right".
Property
Contract
Wrong: the particular will opposing itself to the universal
Morality: The realm of subjective-freedom (particular-will). Represents the aspect of "duty".
Purpose and Responsibility
Intention and Welfare
Good and Conscience
Ethical Life (Sittlichkeit): Synthesis of universal will and particular will. "Hence, in this identity of the universal will with the particular will, right and duty coalesce, and by being in the ethical order a man has rights in so far as he has duties, and duties in so far as he has rights" (¶ 155).
Family
Civil Society: "Civil society: However, despite the pursuit of private or selfish ends in relatively unrestricted social and economic activity, universality is implicit in the differentiation of particular needs insofar as the welfare of an individual in society is intrinsically bound up with that of others, since each requires another in some way to effectively engage in reciprocal activities like commerce, trade, etc." "Because of the integrating function of the corporation, especially in regard to the social and economic division of labor, what appear as selfish purposes in civil society are shown to be at the same time universal through the formation of concretely recognized commonalities." "Unless he is a member of an authorized Corporation (and it is only by being authorized that an association becomes a Corporation), an individual is without rank or dignity, his isolation reduces his business to mere self-seeking, and his livelihood and satisfaction become insecure" (¶ 253).
Social class divisions: the agricultural (substantial or immediate); the business (reflecting or formal); and the civil servants (universal).
Corporations (Korporation): "As the family was the first, so the Corporation is the second ethical root of the state, the one planted in civil society" (¶ 255).
State: "State is the realm of the reconciliation of universal will and particular will." "The political State, as the third moment of Ethical Life, provides a synthesis between the principles governing the Family and those governing Civil Society." "Rationality is concrete in the state in so far as its content is comprised in the unity of objective freedom (freedom of the universal or substantial will) and subjective freedom (freedom of everyone in knowing and willing of particular ends)." "that there must be a correlation between rights and duties. "In the state, as something ethical, as the inter-penetration of the substantive and the particular, my obligation to what is substantive is at the same time the embodiment of my particular freedom. This means that in the state duty and right are united in one and the same relation" (¶ 261)."
Constitutional Law
The constitution: Constitutional Law is accordingly divided into three moments
The Crown: "The monarch is the bearer of the individuality of the state and its sovereignty is the ideality in unity in which the particular functions and powers of the state subsist." Hegel understands the concept of the Crown in terms of constitutional monarchy. Legislative and executive powers are united under the domain of the Crown that is the ultimate decision. However, the monarch is not a despot and he has a supreme advisory council.
The Executive: Civil servants belonging to middle-class. They are checked by the monarch above and the corporation-rights below. They are the intermediary class that regard the universal common good.
The Legislature: Estates (Stände): Not only do the estates guarantee the general welfare and public freedom, but they are also the means by which the state as a whole enters the subjective consciousness of the people through their participation in the state. Thus, the estates incorporate the private judgment and will of individuals in civil society and give it political significance. Estates Assembly. "Hegel rejects the idea of independence or separation of powers for the sake of checks and balances, which he holds destroys the unity of the state (¶ 300, addition). The third moment in the legislature is the estates (Stände), which are the classes of society given political recognition in the legislature. ... Not only do the estates guarantee the general welfare and public freedom, but they are also the means by which the state as a whole enters the subjective consciousness of the people through their participation in the state. Thus, the estates incorporate the private judgment and will of individuals in civil society and give it political significance. ... "Regarded as a mediating organ, the Estates stand between the government in general on the one hand, and the nation broken up into particulars (people and associations) on the other. ... Also, the organizing function of the estates prevents groups in society from becoming formless masses that could form anti-government feelings and rise up in blocs in opposition to the state."
Sovereignty vis-a-vis foreign States: Nation-state is (distinct from political state as one of its moments) a higher form of individuality and there is no universal or inernational law above the Nation-states (Quite similar to Hobbes' sovereign state and its relation to other states).
International Law
On the absence of a state of nature: "Historically, humans begin in an immediate relation to nature and their social existence takes the form of natürliche Sittlichkeit, i.e., a nonselfconscious relation to nature and to others. However, the satisfaction of human desires leads to their reproduction and multiplication and leads to the necessity for labor, which induces transformation in the human world and people's connections to it. This process leads to a self-realization that undermines the original naïve unity with nature and others and to the formation of overtly cooperative endeavors, e.g., in the making and use of tools. Another result of labor is the emergence of private property as an embodiment of human personality..."