The article defines proprietary ways of protecting the property right and place of vindication among them. The author provides the analysis of the grounds for the use of vindication, conditions for reclamation of the property from the unfair and a bona fide purchaser. The court practice of considering cases in this category, as well as the legal positions of the judicial authorities in applying the provisions of Article 388 of the Civil Code of Ukraine are investigated in the article.

The author justified non-identity of such notions as «legal protection» and «social protection». It noted that the existence in a civil law science trends to the recognition of the legal protection with the broader concept than the legal defense, because the legal protection is based on critical principles that ensure inviolability, and the exercise of the ownership rights and other civil rights, as well as measures to prevent violations of these rights. Meanwhile, the protective provisions are primarily aimed at the restoration of the violated rights and the removal of barriers to its implementation.

Miscalculations in the consideration of the vindicatory claims by courts are covered in the article. The position of the higher courts, which allows reclaiming property, implemented by judicial decision that contradict the part two of Art. 388 of the Civil Code of Ukraine are recognized as unjustified.