Binding over
In the law of England and Wales and some other common law jurisdictions, binding over is an exercise of certain powers by the criminal courts used to deal with low-level public order issues. Both magistrates' courts and the Crown Court may issue binding-over orders in certain circumstances.
England and Wales
In a 1988 article in the Cambridge Law Journal, British legal commentator David Feldman describes the power to "bind people over to be of good behaviour or to keep the peace" as a useful and common device used in the criminal justice system of England and Wales, and explains the process as follows:The origins of the binding-over power are rooted in the takings of sureties of the peace, which "emerged from the peace-keeping arrangements of Anglo-Saxon law, extended by the use of the royal prerogative and royal writs", and the separate device of sureties of good behaviour, which originated as a type of conditional pardon given by the king. The statutory authorization for binding-over powers is found in the Justices of the Peace Act 1361 and s. 1 Justices of the Peace Act 1968. Part 11 of Chapter 5 of the Sentencing Act 2020 empowers the criminal courts, when sentencing a person under 18 years for an offence, to "order the parent or guardian to enter into a recognizance to take proper care of the offender and exercise proper control over the offender". Such an order cannot be made against a local authority acting in loco parentis.