PRE-EMPTION

In international law. The right of pre-emption is the right of a nation to detain the merchandise of strangers passing through her territories or seas, in order to afford to her subjects the preference of purchase. 1 Chit Com. Law, 103. In English law. The first buying of a thing. A privilege formerly enjoyed by the crown, of buying up provisions and other necessaries, by the intervention of the king’s purveyors, for the use of his royal household, at an appraised valuation, in preference to all others, and even without consent of the owner. 1 Bl. Comm. 287; Garcia v. Callender, 125 N. Y. 307, 26 N. B. 283. In the United States, the right of preemption is a privilege accorded by the government to the actual settler upon a certain limited portion of the public domain, to purchase such tract at a fixed price to the exclusion of all other applicants. Nix v. Allen, 112 U. S. 129, 5 Sup. Ct. 70, 28 L. Ed. 675; Bray v. Ragsdale, 53 Mo. 170. Pre-emption claimant. One who has settled upon land subject to pre-emption, with the intention to acquire title to it, and has complied, or is proceeding to comply, in good faith, with the requirements of the law to perfect his right to it. Hosmer v. Wallace, 97 U. S. 575, 581, 24 L. Ed. 1130. Pre-emption entry. See ENTRY. Pre-emption right. The right given to settlers upon the public lands of the United States to purchase them at a limited price in preference to others.