Right of Pre-emption – Historical Perspective

Abstract

In this scientific approach, we will focus on the historical dimension of the right of pre-emption. This paper is structured in three chapters highlighting the most important historical aspects underlying the right of pre-emption. Etymologically, pre-emption comes from the Latin words pre (before) and emptio (sale). The first notions of the right of protimis appear in Roman law, where property and inheritance are treated as religious derivations. The great French historian Numa Denis Fustel de Coulanges (1830 - 1889), in his work Cité Antique (Ancient City), stated that property appears to be of divine origin. It belongs to a family, which includes the protective gods, the dead, and the continuators of the family cult, i.e. those who are alive or those who will be born. Each individual of the family is considered a temporary possessor of the property with the obligation to pass these rights on to the descendants in order to continue the family's domestic cult.