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COMMITMENT
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COMMITMENT , in See also:English See also:law, a See also:precept or See also:warrant in See also:writing, made and issued by a See also:court or judicial officer (including, in cases of See also:treason, the privy See also:council or a secretary of See also:state), directing the See also:conveyance of a See also:person named or sufficiently described therein to a See also:prison or other legal See also:place of custody, and his detention therein for a See also:time specified, or until the person to be detained has done a certain See also:act specified in the warrant, e.g. paid a See also:fine imposed upon him on conviction. Its See also:character will be more easily grasped by reference to a See also:form now in use under statutory authority: In the See also:county of A, See also:Petty Sessional See also:Division of B. To each and all of the constables of the county of A and the See also:governor of His See also:Majesty's Prison at C. E. F. hereinafter called the See also:defendant has this See also:day been convicted before the court of See also:summary See also:jurisdiction sitting at D. (Here the conviction and See also:adjudication is stated.) You the said constables are hereby commanded to convey the defendant to the said prison, and there deliver him to the governor thereof together with this warrant : and you the governor of the said prison to receive the defendant into your custody and keep him to hard labour for the space of three See also:calendar months. Dated See also:Signature and See also:seal of a See also:justice of the See also:peace. A commitment as now understood differs from " committal," which is the decision of a court to send a person to prison, and not the document containing the directions to executive and ministerial See also:officers of the law which are consequent on the decision. An See also:interval must necessarily elapse between the decision to commit and the making out of the warrant of commitment, during which interval the detention in custody of the person committed is undoubtedly legal. A commitment differs also from a warrant of See also:arrest (mandat d'amener), in that it is not made until after the person to be detained has actually appeared, or has been summoned, before the court which orders committal, to See also:answer to some See also:charge. If not always, at any See also:rate since 1679, a warrant of commitment has been necessary to justify officers of the law in conveying a prisoner to See also:gaol and a gaoler in receiving and detaining him there. It is ordinarily essential to a valid commitment that it should contain a specific statement of the particular cause of the detention ordered. To this the See also:chief, if not the only exception, is in the See also:case of commitments by See also:order of either See also:House of See also:Parliament (May, Pori. Pr., 11th ed., 63, 70, go). Commitments by justices of the peace must be under their hands and See also:seals. Commitments by a court of See also:record if formally See also:drawn up are under the seal of the court. Every person in custody is entitled, under the Habeas Corpus Act 1679, to receive within six See also:hours of demand from the officer in whose custody he is, a copy of any warrant of commitment under which he is detained, and may See also:challenge its legality by application for a See also:writ of habeas corpus. So far as concerns the acts of justices and tribunals of limited jurisdiction, the stringency of the rules as to commitments is an important aid to the See also:liberty of the subject. In the case of See also:superior courts no statutory forms of commitment exist, and the same formalities are not so strictly enforced. Committal of a person See also:present in court for contempt of the court is enforced by his immediate arrest by the See also:tipstaff as soon as committal is ordered, and he may be detained in prison on a memorandum of the clerk or registrar of the court while a formal order is being drawn up. And in the case of persons sentenced at assizes and See also:quarter sessions the only written authority for enforcement is a calendar of the prisoners tried, on which the sentences are entered up, signed by the presiding See also:judge. Commitments are usually made by courts of criminal jurisdiction in respect of offences against the criminal law, but are also occasionally made as a See also:punishment for disobedience to the orders made in a See also:civil court, e.g. where a See also:judgment debtor having means to pay refuses to satisfy the judgment See also:debt, or in cases where the person committed has been guilty of a See also:direct contempt of the court. The expenses of executing a warrant of commitment, so far as not paid by the prisoner, are defrayed out of the See also:parliamentary grants for the See also:maintenance of prisons. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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