[1] It comes from the Latin verb emo, emere, emi, emptum, to buy or purchase, plus the inseparable preposition pre, before.
In that way, existing shareholders can maintain their proportional ownership of the company and thus prevent stock dilution.
In the United States, for example, it is rare for publicly-listed companies to grant pre-emptive rights to shareholders, but it is common for unlisted companies to grant pre-emptive rights to venture capital and private equity investors.
Parties close to the investors are often given a right of pre-emption in relation to new flats or condominiums within a development.
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; and the captors, or in their default-the government under whose authority they act, shall pay to the masters or owners of such vessel the full value of all articles, with a reasonable mercantile profit thereon, together with the freight, and also the damages incident to such detention.In the 18th-century United States, when an individual bought the preemption right to land, he did not buy the land but only the right to buy the land.