In some common law nations, a recognizance is a conditional pledge of money made by a person before a court. If a person breaks the conditions upon which they were released on their own recognizance, they or their sureties will forfeit the money pledged. It is an obligation of record, entered into before a court or magistrate duly authorized, whereby the party bound acknowledges (recognizes) that they owe a personal debt to the state. A recognizance is subject to a "defeasance"; that is, the obligation will be avoided if person bound does some particular act, such as appearing in court on a particular day, or keeping the peace. In criminal cases the concept is used both as a form of bail when a person has been charged but not tried and also when a person has been found guilty at trial as an incentive not to commit further misconduct. The concept of a recognizance exists in Australia, Canada, Hong Kong, the Republic of Ireland, and the United States. Recognizances were frequently used by courts of quarter sessions, for example they make up more than 70% of surviving records for the Bedfordshire Quarter Sessions records.
- ⭐ Core Definition: Recognizance
- Recognizance in the context of State Committee on the State of Emergency
Recognizance in the context of State Committee on the State of Emergency
The State Committee on the State of Emergency (Russian: Госуда́рственный комите́т по чрезвыча́йному положе́нию, romanized: Gosudárstvenny komitét po chrezvycháynomu polozhéniyu, IPA: [ɡəsʊˈdarstvʲɪn(ː)ɨj kəmʲɪˈtʲet pə tɕrʲɪzvɨˈtɕæjnəmʊ pəlɐˈʐɛnʲɪjʊ]), abbreviated as GKChP (Russian: ГКЧП) and nicknamed the Gang of Eight, was a self-proclaimed political body in the Soviet Union that existed from 19 to 21 August 1991. It included a group of eight high-level Soviet officials within the Soviet government, the Communist Party, and the KGB, who attempted a coup d'état against Mikhail Gorbachev on 19 August 1991. The coup ultimately failed, with the provisional government collapsing by 22 August 1991 and several of the conspirators being prosecuted by the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation.
From 22 to 29 August 1991, former members of the dissolved SCSE and those who actively assisted them were arrested, but from June 1992 to January 1993, they were all released on their own recognizance. In April 1993, the trial began. On 23 February 1994, the defendants in the SCSE case were amnestied by the State Duma of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation, despite Yeltsin's objection. One of the defendants, General V.I. Varennikov, refused to accept the amnesty and his trial continued, which he ultimately won.
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