Posse
Dictionary of Terms and Phrases Used in American or English Jurisprudence · Benjamin Vaughan Abbott · 1879
Dictionary of Terms and Phrases Used in American or English Jurisprudence
To be able; to be possible. This Latin verb is, in law Latin, used as a substantive, with the signification of possibility. Thus a thing is said to be in posse which may possibly be; as distiuguished from a thing in actual existence, said to be in esse.
Fosse comitatus
The power of the county. The force of his county, which a sheriff may call to his aid in the execution of process; including, generally, the entire male population over fifteen years of age, of sound body and mind. In English law, the posse comitatus is that force of the people of the county which the sheriff may command to attend him for keeping of the peace and pursuing felons; also for defending the county against the king's enemies. All persons, except peers, women, clergymen, persons decrepit, and infants under the age of fifteen, are, by Stat. 2 Hen. V. ch. 8, 1414, bound to attend this summons, under pain of fine and imprisonment. (1 Bl. Com. 343; 4 Id. 122; 2 Steph. Com. 629; 4 Id. 254.) Moz Uy