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A ban is a formal or informal
prohibition
Prohibition is the act or practice of forbidding something by law; more particularly the term refers to the banning of the manufacture, storage (whether in barrels or in bottles), transportation, sale, possession, and consumption of alcoholic ...
of something. Bans are formed for the prohibition of activities within a certain political territory. Some bans in commerce are referred to as
embargo
Economic sanctions are commercial and financial penalties applied by one or more countries against a targeted self-governing state, group, or individual. Economic sanctions are not necessarily imposed because of economic circumstances—they m ...
es. ''Ban'' is also used as a verb similar in meaning to "to prohibit".
Etymology
In current English usage, ''ban'' is mostly synonymous with ''prohibition''. Historically, Old English ''(ge)bann'' is a derivation from the verb ''bannan'' "to summon, command, proclaim" from an earlier
Common Germanic
Proto-Germanic (abbreviated PGmc; also called Common Germanic) is the reconstructed proto-language of the Germanic branch of the Indo-European languages.
Proto-Germanic eventually developed from pre-Proto-Germanic into three Germanic branc ...
''*bannan'' "to command, forbid, banish, curse". The modern sense "to prohibit" is influenced by the cognate
Old Norse
Old Norse, Old Nordic, or Old Scandinavian, is a stage of development of North Germanic languages, North Germanic dialects before their final divergence into separate Nordic languages. Old Norse was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and t ...
''banna'' "to curse, to prohibit" and also from
Old French
Old French (, , ; Modern French: ) was the language spoken in most of the northern half of France from approximately the 8th to the 14th centuries. Rather than a unified language, Old French was a linkage of Romance dialects, mutually intelligib ...
''ban'', ultimately a loan from
Old Frankish
Frankish ( reconstructed endonym: *), also known as Old Franconian or Old Frankish, was the West Germanic language spoken by the Franks from the 5th to 9th century.
After the Salian Franks settled in Roman Gaul, its speakers in Picardy an ...
, meaning "
outlawry
An outlaw, in its original and legal meaning, is a person declared as outside the protection of the law. In pre-modern societies, all legal protection was withdrawn from the criminal, so that anyone was legally empowered to persecute
Persec ...
, banishment".
[
The Indo-European etymology of the Germanic term is from a root ''*bha-'' meaning "to speak". Its original meaning was magical, referring to utterances that carried a power to ]curse
A curse (also called an imprecation, malediction, execration, malison, anathema, or commination) is any expressed wish that some form of adversity or misfortune will befall or attach to one or more persons, a place, or an object. In particular, ...
.
Banned political parties
In many countries political parties
A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular country's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific ideological or pol ...
or groups are banned. Parties may be banned for many reasons, including extremism and anti-democratic ideologies, on ethnic or religious grounds, and sometimes simply because the group opposes government policies, with the ban sometimes alleging wrongdoing as the cause. Germany
Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...
, for instance, has a long history behind its modern practice of banning political parties. The Nazi Party
The Nazi Party, officially the National Socialist German Workers' Party (german: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei or NSDAP), was a far-right politics, far-right political party in Germany active between 1920 and 1945 that crea ...
was banned in 1923; after the Nazi Party came into power in 1933 opposing parties such as the Social Democrats
Social democracy is a political, social, and economic philosophy within socialism that supports political and economic democracy. As a policy regime, it is described by academics as advocating economic and social interventions to promote so ...
(SPD) and Communist Party of Germany
The Communist Party of Germany (german: Kommunistische Partei Deutschlands, , KPD ) was a major political party in the Weimar Republic between 1918 and 1933, an underground resistance movement in Nazi Germany, and a minor party in West German ...
(KPD) were banned, the Nazi Party was again banned and the ban on other parties lifted after the Nazi defeat in 1945, and the Communist Party was again banned from 1956 to 1968.
Banning marriages
There have been many bans on marriages, and sometimes other sexual liaisons, between people of different ethnic background or religion, for example between non-Jews and Jews in Nazi Germany, people classified as "white" and non-whites in apartheid
Apartheid (, especially South African English: , ; , "aparthood") was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. Apartheid was ...
South Africa, etc.
For much of the 1800s and 1900s there were bans on marriage between people of different races (interracial marriage
Interracial marriage is a marriage involving spouses who belong to different races or racialized ethnicities.
In the past, such marriages were outlawed in the United States, Nazi Germany and apartheid-era South Africa as miscegenation. In 19 ...
) in many of the United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
. However, the ban on interracial marriage was overturned by the Supreme Court of the United States in 1967 in the landmark civil rights
Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' freedom from infringement by governments, social organizations, and private individuals. They ensure one's entitlement to participate in the civil and political life of ...
case ''Loving vs. Virginia
''Loving v. Virginia'', 388 U.S. 1 (1967), was a landmark civil rights decision of the U.S. Supreme Court in which the Court ruled that laws banning interracial marriage violate the Equal Protection and Due Process Clauses of the Fourteenth Ame ...
'', in which the Court ruled Virginia
Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth ar ...
's miscegenation
Miscegenation ( ) is the interbreeding of people who are considered to be members of different races. The word, now usually considered pejorative, is derived from a combination of the Latin terms ''miscere'' ("to mix") and ''genus'' ("race") ...
law an unconstitutional
Constitutionality is said to be the condition of acting in accordance with an applicable constitution; "Webster On Line" the status of a law, a procedure, or an act's accordance with the laws or set forth in the applicable constitution. When l ...
violation of the fundamental right to marriage. Historically child marriage
Child marriage is a marriage or similar union, formal or informal, between a child under a certain age – typically 18 years – and an adult or another child.
*
*
*
* The vast majority of child marriages are between a female child and a ma ...
was common, but is now banned in many countries.
Banned people
Holy Roman Empire
The Imperial ban
The imperial ban (german: Reichsacht) was a form of outlawry in the Holy Roman Empire. At different times, it could be declared by the Holy Roman Emperor, by the Imperial Diet, or by courts like the League of the Holy Court (''Vehmgericht'') or th ...
was a form of outlaw
An outlaw, in its original and legal meaning, is a person declared as outside the protection of the law. In pre-modern societies, all legal protection was withdrawn from the criminal, so that anyone was legally empowered to persecute or kill them ...
ry in the Holy Roman Empire
The Holy Roman Empire was a Polity, political entity in Western Europe, Western, Central Europe, Central, and Southern Europe that developed during the Early Middle Ages and continued until its Dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire, dissolution i ...
. At different times, it could be declared by the Holy Roman Emperor
The Holy Roman Emperor, originally and officially the Emperor of the Romans ( la, Imperator Romanorum, german: Kaiser der Römer) during the Middle Ages, and also known as the Roman-German Emperor since the early modern period ( la, Imperat ...
, by courts including the League of the Holy Court The Vehmic courts, ''Vehmgericht'', holy vehme, or simply Vehm, also spelt ''Feme'', ''Vehmegericht'', ''Fehmgericht'', are names given to a "proto-vigilante" tribunal system of Westphalia in Germany active during the later Middle Ages, based on a f ...
(german: Vehmgericht, ) and the , or by the Imperial Diet. People under Imperial ban lost all their rights and possessions, and anyone had the right to rob, injure or kill such persons without legal consequences. The Imperial ban automatically followed the excommunication
Excommunication is an institutional act of religious censure used to end or at least regulate the communion of a member of a congregation with other members of the religious institution who are in normal communion with each other. The purpose ...
of a person, and extended to anyone offering help to a person under the imperial ban.
Under apartheid in South Africa
During the apartheid
Apartheid (, especially South African English: , ; , "aparthood") was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. Apartheid was ...
régime in South Africa
South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...
, the National Party government issued banning orders to individuals seen to be threats to its power — often black politicians or organizations — these banning orders acted as suppression order
A gag order (also known as a gagging order or suppression order) is an order, typically a legal order by a court or government, restricting information or comment from being made public or passed onto any unauthorized third party. The phrase may ...
s. Individuals or organisations and critical medias banned by the Suppression of Communism Act, 1950
The Suppression of Communism Act, 1950 (Act No. 44 of 1950), renamed the Internal Security Act in 1976, was legislation of the national government in apartheid South Africa which formally banned the Communist Party of South Africa and proscribed ...
(which effectively defined "Communism" as opposition to the government) could not communicate with more than one person at any time unless at home (thus preventing them from engaging in political activities), travel to outside a specific magisterial district without government approval. The order had mostly domestic effect with versatile legal formative effects. These were for example: local or supra-regional residence restrictions, the prohibition of public expression of opinion, prohibition of printed publications and prohibition of citation in journalistic or scientific contexts the writings of the affecting persons or the participation of gatherings. Measures of this kind could also be applied to groups of people, organisations (for example the Defence Aid Fund for Southern Africa, 1966) and institutions (for example the Christian Institute
The Christian Institute (CI) is a pressure group operating in the United Kingdom, promoting a fundamentalist Christian viewpoint, founded on a belief in Biblical inerrancy. The CI is a registered charity. The group does not report numbers of staf ...
, 1977). There were several laws that legalised such actions ( Riotous Assemblies Act - 1914 and later 1956, Unlawful Organisations Act - 1960, Suppression of Communism Amendment Act - 1967, Internal Security Act - 1976, 1982, 1986
The year 1986 was designated as the International Year of Peace by the United Nations.
Events January
* January 1
** Aruba gains increased autonomy from the Netherlands by separating from the Netherlands Antilles.
**Spain and Portugal ente ...
). The General Law Amendment Act, No. 76 of 1962 empowered the Minister of Justice to publish the banned persons in the Government Gazette
A government gazette (also known as an official gazette, official journal, official newspaper, official monitor or official bulletin) is a periodical publication that has been authorised to publish public or legal notices. It is usually establis ...
. Helen Suzman
Helen Suzman, OMSG, DBE (née Gavronsky; 7 November 1917 – 1 January 2009) was a South African anti-apartheid activist and politician. She represented a series of liberal and centre-left opposition parties during her 36-year tenure in th ...
, a liberal member of the South African parliament, defended the right of free assembly and freedom of expression for all citizens in 1986 and pointed to the growing confrontation between the black population and the police.
The banishment of persons, i.e. expulsion from their place of residence, was practised in smaller numbers. Between 1948 and 1967, this affected 156 people. After 1972, this measure was only applied sporadically.[Muriel Horrell, SAIRR: ''Law Affecting Race Relations in South Africa''. The Natal Witness, Johannesburg, Pietermaritzburg 1978, pp. 429–431 .]
Health and safety
Bans in various jurisdictions on possession of some weapons, smoking
Smoking is a practice in which a substance is burned and the resulting smoke is typically breathed in to be tasted and absorbed into the bloodstream. Most commonly, the substance used is the dried leaves of the tobacco plant, which have bee ...
, and narcotic drugs
The term narcotic (, from ancient Greek ναρκῶ ''narkō'', "to make numb") originally referred medically to any psychoactive compound with numbing or paralyzing properties. In the United States, it has since become associated with opiates ...
are enacted to exert control over the general public
In public relations and communication science, publics are groups of individual people, and the public (a.k.a. the general public) is the totality of such groupings. This is a different concept to the sociological concept of the ''Öffentlichkei ...
.
See also
* Ban (medieval)
In the Middle Ages, the ban (Latin ''bannus'' or ''bannum'', German ''Bann'') or banality (French ''banalité'') was originally the power to command men in war and evolved into the general authority to order and to punish. As such, it was the basis ...
* Censure
A censure is an expression of strong disapproval or harsh criticism. In parliamentary procedure, it is a debatable main motion that could be adopted by a majority vote. Among the forms that it can take are a stern rebuke by a legislature, a spir ...
and Excommunication
Excommunication is an institutional act of religious censure used to end or at least regulate the communion of a member of a congregation with other members of the religious institution who are in normal communion with each other. The purpose ...
, which may result in a ban pursuant to religious law
Religious law includes ethical and moral codes taught by religious traditions. Different religious systems hold sacred law in a greater or lesser degree of importance to their belief systems, with some being explicitly antinomian whereas others ...
* Export restriction
Export restrictions, or a restriction on exportation, are limitations on the quantity of goods exported to a specific country or countries by a Government. Export restrictions could be aimed at achieving diverse policy objectives such as environ ...
* Herem (censure)
''Herem'' (, also Romanized ''chērem, ḥērem'') is the highest ecclesiastical censure in the Jewish community. It is the total exclusion of a person from the Jewish community. It is a form of shunning and is similar to ''vitandus'' "excommuni ...
, a ban pursuant to Jewish law
''Halakha'' (; he, הֲלָכָה, ), also Romanization of Hebrew, transliterated as ''halacha'', ''halakhah'', and ''halocho'' ( ), is the collective body of Judaism, Jewish religious laws which is derived from the Torah, written and Oral Tora ...
* '' Homo sacer'' and the sovereign state of exception
A state of exception (german: Ausnahmezustand) is a concept introduced in the 1920s by the German philosopher and jurist Carl Schmitt, similar to a state of emergency (martial law) but based in the sovereign's ability to transcend the rule of law ...
* List of banned books
This is an index of lists of banned books, which contain books that have been banned or censored by religious authority or government.
By country
* Book censorship in Canada
* Book censorship in China
* List of books banned in India
* Book ce ...
* List of banned computer and video games
This is a list of video games that have been censored or banned by governments of various states in the world. Governments that have banned video games have been criticized for a correlated increase in digital piracy, limiting business opport ...
* List of banned films
For nearly the entire history of film, history of film production, certain films have been Ban (law), banned by film censorship or review organizations for political or morality, moral reasons or for controversy, controversial content, such as hom ...
* List of banned political parties
This is a list of political parties that were or are currently banned.
By country Argentina
In 1943, Pedro Pablo Ramírez banned all political parties after 1943 Argentine coup d'état, overthrowing the government.
Austria
Algeria
}, french: P ...
* List of people subject to banning orders under apartheid
__NOTOC__
This list of people subject to banning orders under apartheid lists a selection of people subject to a "banning order" by the apartheid-era South African government. Banning was a repressive and extrajudicial measure used by the South ...
* List of websites blocked in China
Many domain names are blocked in the People's Republic of China (mainland China) under the country's Internet censorship in China, Internet censorship policy, which prevents users from accessing certain websites from within the country.
This is ...
* Ostracism
Ostracism ( el, ὀστρακισμός, ''ostrakismos'') was an Athenian democratic procedure in which any citizen could be expelled from the city-state of Athens for ten years. While some instances clearly expressed popular anger at the cit ...
* Prohibition
Prohibition is the act or practice of forbidding something by law; more particularly the term refers to the banning of the manufacture, storage (whether in barrels or in bottles), transportation, sale, possession, and consumption of alcoholic ...
—usually referring to historical and current laws regulating prohibition of alcohol
* Shunning
Shunning can be the act of social rejection, or emotional distance. In a religious context, shunning is a formal decision by a denomination or a congregation to cease interaction with an individual or a group, and follows a particular set of rule ...
practiced in the Amish community
* Use of performance-enhancing drugs in sport
In competitive sports, doping is the use of banned athletic performance-enhancing drugs by athletic competitors as a way of cheating in sports. The term ''doping'' is widely used by organizations that regulate sporting competitions. The use of ...
References
External links
*
* {{cite EB1911 , wstitle=Ban , volume=3 , pages=305–306 , short=x
Punishments
Regulation