Blacks Law Dict. 1st ed

POSITIVE LAW

913

POSSESSIO NATURALIS

leads to ownership, through usucapio. Accord ingly, the word u poasessio, " which required no qualification so long as there was no other notion attached to possessio, requires such qualification when detention becomes a legal state. This de tention, then, when it has the conditions necessary to usucapio, is called "possessio clvilis;* and all other possessio as opposed to clvilia is naturalis. Sandars, Just. Inst. 274. Wharton. In old English law. Possession; seisin. The detention of a corporeal thing by means of a physical act and mental intent, aided by some support of right. Bract, fol. 386. POSSESSIO BONA FIDE. In the civil law. Possession in good faith. Possessio mala fide, possession in bad faith. A pos sessor bonafide is one who believes that no other person has a better right to the pos session than himself. A possessor mala fide is one who knows that he is not entitled to the possession. Mackeld. Horn. Law, § 243. POSSESSIO BONOBUM. In the civil law. The possession of goods. More com monly termed "bonorum possessio," (q. v.) POSSESSIO CIVILIS. In Roman law. A legal possession, i.e., a possessing accom panied with the intention to be or to there by become owner; and, a3 so understood, it was distinguished from "possessio na turalis," otherwise called "nuda detentio," which was a possessing without any such intention. Possessio civilis was the basis of usucapio or of longi temporis possessio, and was usually (but not necessarily) ad verse possession. Brown. POSSESSIO FRATRIS. Lat. The possession or seisin of a brother; that is, such possession of an estate by a brother as would entitle his sister of the whole blood to succeed him as heir, to the exclusion of a half-brother. Hence, derivatively, that doc trine of the older English law of descent which shut out the half-blood from the suc cession to estates; a doctrine which was abolished by the descent act, 3 & 4 Wm. IV. c. 106. See 1 Steph. Comm. 385; Broom, Max. 532. Possessio fratris de feodo simplici facit sororem esse hseredem. The broth er's possession of an estate in fee-si in pie makes the sister to be heir. 3 Coke, 41; Broom, Max. 532. POSSESSIO LONGI TEMPORIS. See USUCAPIO. POSSESSIO NATURALIS. See POS SESSIO CIVILIS.

"A 'law,' in the sense in which that term is employed in jurisprudence, is enforced by a sovereign political authority. It is thus dis tinguished not only from all rules which, like the principles of morality and the so-called laws of honor and of fashion, are enforced by an indeterminate authority, but also from all rules enforced by a determinate authority which is either, on the one hand, superhuman, or, on the other hand, politically subordinate. In order to emphasize the fact that • laws,' in the strict sense of the term, are thus authori tatively imposed, they are described as poai tfwlaws." Holl. Jur. 37. POSITIVE PROOF. Direct or afSrma tive proof; that which directly establishes the fact in question; as opposed to negative proof, which establishes the fact by showing that its opposite is not or cannot be true. P OSTIVI JURIS. Lat. Of positive law. "That was a rule positivi juris; I do not mean to say an unjust one." Lord El lenborough, 12 East, 639. Posito uno oppositorum, negatur al terum. One of two opposite positions being affirmed, the other is deniedi 3 Rolle, 422. POSSE. Lat. A possibility. A thing is said to be in posse when it may possibly be; in esse when it actually is. POSSE COMITATUS. The power or force of the county. The entire population of a county above the age of fifteen, which a sheriff may summon to his assistance in cer tain cases; as to aid him in keeping the peace, in pursuing and arresting felons, etc. 1 Bl. Comm. 343. POSSESSED. This word is applied to the right and enjoyment of a termor, or a person having a term, who is said to be pos sessed, and not seised. Bac. Tr. 335; Poph. 76; Dyer, 369. POSSESSIO. Lat. In the civil law. That condition of fact under which one can exercise his power over a corporeal thing at his pleasure, to the exclusion of all others. This condition of fact is called "detention," and it forms the substance of possession in all its varieties. Mackeld. Bom. Law, § 238. "Possession," in the sense of "detention, "is the actual exercise of such a power as the owner has a right to exercise. The term "possessio " occurs in the Roman jurists in various senses. There is possessio simply, and possessio civilis, and pos sessio naturalis. Possessio denoted, originally, bare detention. But this detention, under certain conditions, becomes a legal state, inasmuch as it AM.DICT.LAW—58

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