To the Definition of Preferential Right in Civil Law

The essential features of the preferential right are revealed and the main approaches to understanding its legal nature are considered. According to the first approach, preferential rights are defined as cases when, under all equal conditions, the advantage is granted by law to a specific group of persons with some special characteristics. The second approach does not have a single idea: the authors focus on a certain aspect of preferential rights and propose to understand other preferential rights in the same way. The place of “preferential rights” among other exceptions in the law is determined, the relationship and difference from related legal categories are shown. Based on the results of carried out research, the author's definition of a preferential right is developed as an additional possibility based on the property (corporate) interest of its owner, established by law or contract, to demand from the subject-accomplice in the right or the party in respect of proper behavior in the form of providing advantages over third parties. This right is proposed to be considered an independent subjective right due to the obvious independence of its existence in objective law as a measure of possible behavior defined by law (by contract, constituent document), the presence of a construction corresponding to it of a legal obligation, its own mechanism for the implementation of this right, and for a number of other reasons set out in the work.