1. The power of a court to issue an edict, esp. one relating to the public peace.
2. The edict itself.
— Also termed bannum.
“An essential attribute of judicial power in the later periods is the bann, the right to command and forbid. Etymologically, bann comes from a root signifying loud speech. It may have meant at first the order issued by the leader in war; later an administrative command or ordinance. Hence it covers the official proclamation of peace in the court, and then it comes to mean the peace itself. In the older Frank sources, bann appears in the Latin as sermo, and sermo regis is the king’s peace. Extra sermonem regis ponere means to put out of the peace. Another Latin or rather Latinized German word is forisbannire, from which comes our word ‘banish.’ ” Munroe Smith, The Development of European Law 35 (1928).
