  What Spinoza is criticizing here is the Hobbesian view of contracts (covenants) or the transference of one’s natural right. The transferability or alienability of one’s natural right to judge how to defend oneself serves as the foundation of Hobbes’ political theory; it allows him to explain the formation of the commonwealth and the legitimacy of the sovereign. In Spinoza’s view, however, Hobbes violates naturalism here. By conceiving of one’s natural right as something like an entitlement that can be transferred, which in turn leads him to drive a wedge between right and power in the commonwealth, Hobbes never fully rids his account of the vestiges of the juridical tradition that Spinoza sought to overturn.