The right to purchase something in advance of others

Usage examples of preemption.

The president noted that the traditional notion of preemption held that a nation would be justified in striking first if an adversary began to make discernible war preparations and began to move its ships, ready its planes, or mobilize its troops.

Bush administration, Iraq was an inviting target for preemption not because it was an immediate threat but because it was thought to be a prospective menace that was incapable of successfully defending itself against a U.

In making his argument for preemption in his June 2002 West Point speech and later in his official strategy document, Bush argued that deterrence--the threat of devastating retaliation that had kept the peace throughout the standoff with the Soviets during the Cold War--no longer could guarantee the peace.

In essence, the document implied that not only was preemption unnecessary in the case of Iraq but could backfire and bring about the very disaster it was intended to avert: the provision of WMD by Saddam to terrorists who sought to destroy America.

Rice was close to the president and had helped to frame his preemption doctrine.

Having publicly promulgated a doctrine of preemption, the Bush team was not about to be restrained by lack of support at the United Nations.

According to Captain Elijah Carey, who was in the thick of it, Santini advised Mister Watson that the State of Florida would not give preemption papers to any citizen who had not paid his debts to society, said Watson better look out for his own business.

The courts have frequently debated whether laws of unfair competition are similar enough to copyright jurisdiction in its aims to be preempted by Federal copyright law, to which defendant argues that preemption is not absolute in the area of intellectual property.

Twice have the crow-blackbirds attempted a settlement in my pines, and twice have the robins, who claim a right of preemption, so successfully played the part of border-ruffians as to drive them away,--to my great regret, for they are the best substitute we have for rooks.

And the notion of justified preemption runs counter to modern international law, which sanctions the use of force in self-defense only against actual, not potential, threats.

Its silence said that the pheromones were not those of preemption or command.

He had readily acknowledged Aruthas preemption of his command, for given its location, the garrison of Sethanon lacked any real battlefield commanders.

The President, in unfurling his June 2002 doctrine of preemption at West Point, was disingenuous in suggesting that proof of an emerging threat would be needed to trigger action.

Those co-PIs were ticked off and several time zones distant, fuming at the unexplained preemption by Rosaviacosmos of their long-scheduled viewings.

The game of first memories had been skirmishing, a confinement of the answer by the phrasing of the question, small preemptions of spirit.