Pre-emption in United Kingdom

Concept of Pre-emption

The following is an old definition of Pre-emption [1], a term which has several meanings:1. The first buying of atfiing. A privilege allowed the king’s purveyor up to 1661

Alternative Meaning

The right to purchase at a fixed price in a limited time in preference to others. The exchisive right in a person to purchase a quantity of the public lands in consequence of having complied with the laws of Congress upon the subject. Pre-emptor; pre-emptioner; pre-emptionist. He who holds such prior right of purchase. One who by settlement upon the public land or by cultivating a portion of it has obtained the right to purchase a por- tion of such land, to the exclusion of all other persons. Pre-emption claimant. One who settles upon land subject to pre-emption, with the intention to acquire its title, and has complied, or is proceeding to comply, in good faith, with the requirements of the law, to perfect his right to it. All public lands are subject to pre-emption, except land included in reservations, land within the limits selected as the site of a city or town, laud actually settled and occupied by trade and business and not for agriculture, and lands on which are found or situated any known salines or mines. Any adult citizen of the United States, or a foreigner who has filed his declaration to become a citizen, who makes a settle-ment in person, and inhabits and improves the same, and shall erect a dwelling thereon, may enter, for one hundred and sixty acres, with the land-register, upon paying the minimum price of such land, and proving settlement. But one who has three hundred and twenty acres in any State or Territory cannot pre-empt; nor can one who quits his residence on his own land to re- side on public lands in the same State or Territory. Nor can any one file a second declaration for another tract. A party by mere settlement, with declared intention to obtain a title, does not thereby acquire such interest as to deprive Congress of the power to devest it by a grant to another party. The power of Congress ceases when all the preliminary acts, prescribed for the acquisition of the title, have been performed by the settler. Then the settler’s interest is vested, and he is entitled to a certificate of entry from the local land-office, and, ultimately, to a patent from the United States. Until such entry, the settler has only a privilege or preference of pre-emption in case the lands are offered for sale in the usual manner. The United States only declare by the pre-emption laws that if lands are thrown open for sale, the preference of sale, in limited quantities, shall be in the first person who settles and improves them. The pre-emption laws imperatively require a residence both continuous and personal upon the land. The settler may be excused for temporary absences caused by well-founded apprehension of violence, by sickness, by the presence of an epidemic, by judicial expulsion, or by engagement In the military or naval service. See Land, Public; Patent.

Resources

Notes and References

1. Meaning of Pre-emption provided by the Anderson Dictionary of Law (1889) (Dictionary of Law consisting of Judicial Definitions and Explanations of Words, Phrases and Maxims and an Exposition of the Principles of Law: Comprising a Dictionary and Compendium of American and English Jurisprudence; William C. Anderson; T. H. Flood and Company, Law Publishers, Chicago, United States)