The article examines a vindication claim as a fundamental substantive method of protecting property rights. The genesis of this institution is traced from Roman private law to modern Russian legislation, and the influence of German customary law on the formation of the concept of bona fide acquisition is analyzed. Special attention is paid to the procedural and substantive features of the prosecutor's participation in vindication disputes related to the recovery of state and municipal property from someone else's illegal possession. The article considers the specifics of the subject of evidence in such cases, the issues of competition between a vindication claim and restitution, as well as the problems of calculating the limitation period. The authors substantiates the conclusion that the participation of the prosecutor transforms a private law dispute into a mechanism for protecting public interests, which imposes special requirements on the proof and legal qualification of the dispute. The methodological basis of the research consists of historical-legal, comparative-legal and formal-legal methods. The theoretical significance of the work lies in a systematic analysis of the evolution of the institution of vindication, while the practical significance lies in identifying problematic aspects of law enforcement when considering claims by prosecutors.