History of parliamentary procedure
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The history of parliamentary procedure refers to the origins and evolution of
parliamentary law Parliamentary procedure is the accepted rules, ethics, and customs governing meetings of an assembly or organization. Its object is to allow orderly deliberation upon questions of interest to the organization and thus to arrive at the sense or t ...
used by
deliberative assemblies A deliberative assembly is a meeting of members who use parliamentary procedure. Etymology In a speech to the electorate at Bristol in 1774, Edmund Burke described the British Parliament as a "deliberative assembly," and the expression became the ...
.


Origins

'' Demeter's Manual'' traces the origins of parliamentary law, by which is meant orderly deliberation and action by an assembly of persons or a body of citizens, to c. 750 BC in Greece. It was during that era that the idea of
self-government __NOTOC__ Self-governance, self-government, or self-rule is the ability of a person or group to exercise all necessary functions of regulation without intervention from an external authority. It may refer to personal conduct or to any form of ...
, with the right to deliberate in assembly and to speak and vote on public questions, was conceived. The Greeks instituted the Athenian agora, equivalent to the American
town meeting Town meeting is a form of local government in which most or all of the members of a community are eligible to legislate policy and budgets for local government. It is a town- or city-level meeting in which decisions are made, in contrast with ...
, consisting of the whole body of male citizens above eighteen years of age, which met forty times each year on the Acropolis. Any citizen could address the meeting from the Bema and vote on questions before the assembly. Circa 450 BC, the Romans adopted the concept of self-government and expanded it with the institution of the Roman Forum, where Roman orators addressed the General Assembly from the
Rostra The rostra ( it, Rostri, links=no) was a large platform built in the city of Rome that stood during the republican and imperial periods. Speakers would stand on the rostra and face the north side of the comitium towards the senate house and de ...
and the people afterward voted on pending questions.


Anglo-Saxon tribes

According to ''
Robert's Rules of Order Newly Revised ''Robert's Rules of Order'', often simply referred to as ''Robert's Rules'', is a manual of parliamentary procedure by U.S. Army officer Henry Martyn Robert. "The object of Rules of Order is to assist an assembly to accomplish the work for whic ...
'' (RONR), one commonly held view is that "our own tradition of parliamentary process may be traced to ways of life in Anglo-Saxon tribes before their migration to the island of Britain starting in the fifth century A.D. Among these peoples on the continent of Europe, the tribe was the largest regularly existing political unit." Each of the early Anglo-Saxon kingdoms had its own
witenagemot The Witan () was the king's council in Anglo-Saxon England from before the seventh century until the 11th century. It was composed of the leading magnates, both ecclesiastic and secular, and meetings of the council were sometimes called the Wi ...
, which was a national assembly consisting of freemen who owned land. The structure of the Anglo-Saxon governmental machinery was left largely intact even after the
Norman Conquest The Norman Conquest (or the Conquest) was the 11th-century invasion and occupation of England by an army made up of thousands of Norman, Breton, Flemish, and French troops, all led by the Duke of Normandy, later styled William the Con ...
in 1066, with the Norman kings assembling a "Great Council" of court officials, barons, and prelates that was constitutionally a continuation of the witenagemot.


Early parliament

In the 13th and early 14th centuries, the Great Council was converted into the
English Parliament The Parliament of England was the legislature of the Kingdom of England from the 13th century until 1707 when it was replaced by the Parliament of Great Britain. Parliament evolved from the great council of bishops and peers that advised t ...
. The distinguishing feature of these early parliaments was that the barons were invited to not only express their opinions individually to the king, but to discuss with each other the business "of king and kingdom" rather than only "the king's business." The earliest parliament clearly identifiable as of this character was held in 1258. It was during the Thirteenth century that the rules of parliamentary law started taking form as a science. The
clerk of the House of Commons The Clerk of the House of Commons is the chief executive of the House of Commons in the Parliament of the United Kingdom, and before 1707 of the House of Commons of England. The formal name for the position held by the Clerk of the House of Com ...
began writing the Journal of the House of Commons on his own initiative in 1547, which became a source of precedent in parliamentary procedure. ''Legislative Procedure: Parliamentary Practices and the Course of Business'' notes that "many usages were crystallized, so to speak, by the ruling of a Speaker or by some formal action of Parliament, such as a resolution or simple vote."


Early United States

British parliamentary procedures were carried over to the American colonies and became the foundations of legislative procedure in the U.S. states.
Jefferson's Manual ''A Manual of Parliamentary Practice for the Use of the Senate of the United States'', written by Thomas Jefferson in 1801, is the first American book on parliamentary procedure. As Vice President of the United States, Jefferson served as the Sen ...
, published in 1801, recognized indebtedness to
John Hatsell John Hatsell (22 December 1733 – 15 October 1820) was an English civil servant, clerk of the House of Commons, and an authority on parliamentary procedure. Early life He was the son of the lawyer Henry Hatsell (1701–1762), a bencher of t ...
's ''
Precedents of Proceedings in the House of Commons A precedent is a principle or rule established in a previous legal case that is either binding on or persuasive for a court or other tribunal when deciding subsequent cases with similar issues or facts. Common-law legal systems place great value ...
''. In the
U.S. House of Representatives The United States House of Representatives, often referred to as the House of Representatives, the U.S. House, or simply the House, is the lower chamber of the United States Congress, with the Senate being the upper chamber. Together they ...
, parliamentary procedure was perfected into a system which was described in the U.S. House ''Rules and Manual'' thus: The development of parliamentary law was similar to that of the
common law In law, common law (also known as judicial precedent, judge-made law, or case law) is the body of law created by judges and similar quasi-judicial tribunals by virtue of being stated in written opinions."The common law is not a brooding omnipres ...
. ''
Mason's Manual ''Mason's Manual of Legislative Procedure'', commonly referred to as ''Mason's Manual'', is the official parliamentary authority of most state legislatures in the United States. This 700+ page book has been "Adopted as the authority on question ...
'' notes that parliamentary law was built on precedents created by decisions on points of order or
appeals In law, an appeal is the process in which cases are reviewed by a higher authority, where parties request a formal change to an official decision. Appeals function both as a process for error correction as well as a process of clarifying and ...
and by decisions of courts. It was guided in its development by the authority to make rules inherent in every deliberative body. The common law of parliamentary procedure, however, did not rest upon mere custom but upon reasonable and equitable custom. ''Mason's Manual'' notes:


20th century to present

By the beginning of the 20th century, ''
Robert's Rules of Order ''Robert's Rules of Order'', often simply referred to as ''Robert's Rules'', is a manual of parliamentary procedure by U.S. Army officer Henry Martyn Robert. "The object of Rules of Order is to assist an assembly to accomplish the work for whic ...
'', had been almost universally adopted by ordinary societies. In 1950,
Alice Sturgis Alice Sturgis (1885–1974) was an author and parliamentarian, best known for writing the '' Sturgis Standard Code of Parliamentary Procedure''. She was a practicing parliamentarian and consultant to national and international professional and bu ...
published the ''Sturgis Standard Code of Parliamentary Procedure'', later revised in 2001 by AIP as ''
The Standard Code of Parliamentary Procedure ''The Standard Code of Parliamentary Procedure'' (formerly the ''Sturgis Standard Code of Parliamentary Procedure'' by Alice Sturgis) is a book of rules of order. It is the second most popular parliamentary authority in the United States after ...
'', arguing that organizations need not continue operating under 19th century rules, and that it would be better to go with a simpler set of rules. In 1969 George Demeter published ''
Demeter's Manual of Parliamentary Law and Procedure 125px, Demeter's Manual ''Demeter's Manual of Parliamentary Law and Procedure'' is a parliamentary authority manual by George Demeter. It is included in the bank of study materials used in preparing for the Certified Parliamentarian (CP) designat ...
, Blue Book Edition'', that was longer and more in-depth than the then current version of ''Robert's Rules of Order Revised'' (ROR). In the 21st century, the latest editions of ''
Robert's Rules of Order Newly Revised ''Robert's Rules of Order'', often simply referred to as ''Robert's Rules'', is a manual of parliamentary procedure by U.S. Army officer Henry Martyn Robert. "The object of Rules of Order is to assist an assembly to accomplish the work for whic ...
'' included coverage of current practices such as electronic meetings and sending communication by electronic means such as e-mail.


References


Further reading

* {{DEFAULTSORT:History Of Parliamentary Procedure Parliamentary procedure
Parliamentary procedure Parliamentary procedure is the accepted rules, ethics, and customs governing meetings of an assembly or organization. Its object is to allow orderly deliberation upon questions of interest to the organization and thus to arrive at the sense ...
Political history