PRE-EMPTION, intern1. law. The right of preemption 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; 1 Bl. Com. 287.
2. This right is sometimes regulated by treaty. In that which was made between the United States and Great Britain, bearing date the 10th day of November, 1794, ratified2 in 1795, it was agreed, art. 18, after mentioning that the usual munitions3 of war, and also naval4 materials should be confiscated5 as contraband6, that "whereas the difficulty of agreeing on precise cases in which alone provisions and other articles not generally contraband may be regarded as such, renders it expedient7 to provide against the inconveniences and misunderstandings which might thence arise. It is further agreed that whenever any such articles so being contraband according to the existing laws of nations, shall for that reason be seized, the same shall not be confiscated, but the owners thereof shall be speedily and completely indemnified; an the captors, or in their default-the government under whose authority they act, shall pay to the masters or owners of such vessel8 the full value of all articles, with a reasonable mercantile profit thereon, together with the freight, and also the damages incident to such detention9." See Mann. Com. B. 3, c. 8.
3. By the laws of the United States the right given to settlers of public lands, to purchase them in preference to others, is called the preemption right. See act of L. April 29, 1830, 4 Sharsw. Cont. of Story, U. S. 2212.
PREFECT, French law. A chief officer invested with the superintendence of the administration of the laws in each department. Merl. Repert. h. t.
PREFERENCE. The paying or securing to one or more of his creditors11, by an insolvent12 debtor13, the whole or a part of their claim, to the exclusion14 of the rest. By preference is also meant the right which a creditor10 has acquired over others to be paid first out of the assets of his debtor, as, when a creditor has obtained a judgment15 against his debtor which binds16 the latter's land, he has a preference.
2. Voluntary preferences are forbidden by the insolvent laws of some of the states, and are void, when made in a general assignment for the benefit of creditors. Vide Insolvent; Priority.
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