A parliamentary authority is a book of rules for conducting business (

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 or t ...

) in deliberative assemblies. Several different books have been used by legislative assemblies and by organizations' deliberative bodies.

Application to organizations

A group may create its own parliamentary rules and then adopt an authority to cover meeting procedure not covered in its rules or vice versa. Rules in a parliamentary authority can be superseded by the group's constitution or bylaws or by adopted procedural rules (with a few exceptions). The adopted procedural rules may be called special rules of order. The combined rules from all sources is called

. Assemblies that do not adopt a parliamentary authority may nonetheless use a parliamentary authority by custom or may consider themselves governed by “common parliamentary law” or the “common law of parliamentary procedure”. A society that has adopted bylaws that do not designate a parliamentary authority may adopt one by the same vote required to adopt special rules of order. A

mass meeting In parliamentary law, a mass meeting is a type of deliberative assembly or popular assembly, which in a publicized or selectively distributed notice known as the call of the meeting - has been announced: (RONR) *as called to take appropriate act ...

can adopt a parliamentary authority by a

majority vote A majority, also called a simple majority or absolute majority to distinguish it from related terms, is more than half of the total.Dictionary definitions of ''majority'' aMerriam-Webster The book ''Robert's Rules of Order Newly Revised'' states, “In matters on which an organization's adopted parliamentary authority is silent, provisions found in other works on parliamentary law may be ''persuasive'' – that is, they may carry weight in the absence of overriding reasons for following a different course – but they are not binding on the body.”

Survey of usage in organizations

A poll by Jim Slaughter surveyed American Certified Professional Parliamentarians (CPPs) in 1999 to ask what percent of clients used each parliamentary authority. The results were published in 2000 in ''Parliamentary Journal'', the

official journal 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 ...

of the

American Institute of Parliamentarians The American Institute of Parliamentarians (AIP) is a not-for-profit educational organization founded in 1958. The objectives of AIP are to promote the use and teaching of parliamentary procedure, as well as the training and certification of parl ...

: 90 percent used '' Robert's Rules of Order Newly Revised'' (RONR), 8 percent used ''

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 afte ...

'' (formerly Sturgis, now AIPSC), and 3 percent used some other authority, including ''

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) design ...

'' (Demeter), '' Riddick's Rules of Procedure'' (Riddick/Butcher), ''

Bourinot's Rules of Order Bourinot's Rules of Order is a Canadian parliamentary authority originally published in 1894 by (the younger) Sir John George Bourinot, Clerk of the House of Commons of Canada under the title ''A Canadian Manual on the Procedure at Meetings of Sha ...

'' (Bourinot), and ''Rules of Order'' (Davis). Bourinot was used in Canada.

''Robert's Rules of Order''

''Robert's Rules of Order'' was first published in 1876 by Henry Martyn Robert. It has been revised several times by the original author and then by his successors. As of its publication in September 2020, the 12th edition of ''Robert's Rules of Order Newly Revised'' is the current official edition of the body of work known as "Robert's Rules of Order". This body of work is the most popular and well-known parliamentary authority in the United States.

''The Standard Code of Parliamentary Procedure''

''The Standard Code of Parliamentary Procedure'' was first published in 1950 by Alice Sturgis and referred to as TSC or Sturgis. A new book, titled ''American Institute of Parliamentarians'' ''Standard Code of Parliamentary Procedure'' (AIPSC), was published in 2012. AIPSC is used by many United States medical associations of

physician A physician (American English), medical practitioner ( Commonwealth English), medical doctor, or simply doctor, is a health professional who practices medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring health through t ...

s and

dentist A dentist, also known as a dental surgeon, is a health care professional who specializes in dentistry (the diagnosis, prevention, management, and treatment of diseases and conditions of the oral cavity and other aspects of the craniofacial com ...

s, including the

American Medical Association The American Medical Association (AMA) is a professional association and lobbying group of physicians and medical students. Founded in 1847, it is headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. Membership was approximately 240,000 in 2016. The AMA's sta ...

House of Delegates and

American Association of Orthodontists Founded in 1900, the American Association of Orthodontists (AAO) is the world's oldest and largest dental specialty organization. It represents nearly 19,000 orthodontist members throughout the United States, Canada and abroad. All orthodontists are ...

as well as by the

Association of Flight Attendants The Association of Flight Attendants-CWA (commonly known as AFA) is a union representing flight attendants in the United States. As of January 2018, AFA represents 50,000 flight attendants at 20 airlines. Since 2004, AFA has been part of the Co ...

.Parliamentary Procedures: Interesting Facts and Tips
,

University of Illinois The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (U of I, Illinois, University of Illinois, or UIUC) is a public university, public land-grant university, land-grant research university in Illinois in the twin cities of Champaign, Illinois, Champai ...

''Demeter's Manual of Parliamentary Law and Procedure''

''Demeter's Manual of Parliamentary Law and Procedure'', first published in 1948 by George Demeter, is another parliamentary authority in North America. It is often favored by North American

labor unions A trade union (labor union in American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers intent on "maintaining or improving the conditions of their employment", ch. I such as attaining better wages and benefits ( ...

and Hellenic organizations. , Demeter is published by the American Institute of Parliamentarians.

Legislative assemblies

Legislative assemblies in all countries, because of their nature, tend to have specialized of rules that differ from parliamentary procedure used by clubs and organizations.

Parliaments

The

UK Parliament The Parliament of the United Kingdom is the supreme legislative body of the United Kingdom, the Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories. It meets at the Palace of Westminster, London. It alone possesses legislative supremac ...

follows ''Erskine May's Treatise on the Law, Privileges, Proceedings and Usage of Parliament'' (also known as '' Erskine May: Parliamentary Practice''). There are also the Standing Orders for each House. The

House of Commons of Canada The House of Commons of Canada (french: Chambre des communes du Canada) is the lower house of the Parliament of Canada. Together with the Crown and the Senate of Canada, they comprise the bicameral legislature of Canada. The House of Commons ...

follows '' Beauchesne's Parliamentary Rules and Forms''. ''

'' is another book used in Anglophone Canada. In Quebec, the ''Procédure des assemblées délibérantes'' (commonly known as Le Code Morin) are rules of order in French. The

Australian House of Representatives The House of Representatives is the lower house of the bicameral Parliament of Australia, the upper house being the Senate. Its composition and powers are established in Chapter I of the Constitution of Australia. The term of members of th ...

follows ''House of Representatives Practice.'' The

Australian Senate The Senate is the upper house of the bicameral Parliament of Australia, the lower house being the House of Representatives. The composition and powers of the Senate are established in Chapter I of the Constitution of Australia. There are a to ...

follows ''Odgers' Australian Senate Practice.'' Each Australian state and territory house of Parliament has its own rules. A number of procedural reference works are used by other organisations in Australia.

Legislatures in the United States

The United States Senate follows the

Standing Rules of the United States Senate The Standing Rules of the Senate are the parliamentary procedures adopted by the United States Senate that govern its procedure. The Senate's power to establish rules derives from Article One, Section5 of the United States Constitution: "Each ...

, while the United States House of Representatives follows its own procedures, which include ''

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 ...

''. Of the 99 state legislative chambers in the United States (two for each state except Nebraska, which has a

unicameral Unicameralism (from ''uni''- "one" + Latin ''camera'' "chamber") is a type of legislature, which consists of one house or assembly, that legislates and votes as one. Unicameral legislatures exist when there is no widely perceived need for multic ...

legislature), ''

Mason's Manual of Legislative Procedure ''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 ...

'' governs parliamentary procedures in 70, ''Jefferson's Manual'' governs 13, and ''Robert's Rules of Order'' governs four. ''Mason's Manual'', originally written in 1935 by constitutional scholar and former California Senate staff member Paul Mason, and since his death revised and published by the

National Conference of State Legislatures The National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL), established in 1975, is a "nonpartisan public officials’ association composed of sitting state legislators" from the states, territories and commonwealths of the United States. Background ...

(NCSL), governs legislative procedures in instances where the state constitution, state statutes, and the chamber's rules are silent. According to the NCSL, one of the many reasons that most state legislatures use ''Mason's Manual'' instead of ''Robert's Rules of Order'' is because ''Robert's Rules'' applies best to private organizations and civic groups that do not meet in daily public sessions. ''Mason's Manual'', on the other hand, is geared specifically toward state legislative bodies. Legislative bodies at the local level, such as a

city council A municipal council is the legislative body of a municipality or local government area. Depending on the location and classification of the municipality it may be known as a city council, town council, town board, community council, rural counc ...

or a

county commission A county commission (or a board of county commissioners) is a group of elected officials (county commissioners) collectively charged with administering the county government in some states of the United States; such commissions usually comprise ...

, function similarly to boards of societies and as such, have used ''Robert's Rules of Order''.

References

External links

The Official Robert's Rules siteThe Advantages of Mason's Manual for Legislative Bodies
* ttps://web.archive.org/web/20080820053512/http://www.policygovernanceassociation.org/conference_06/Doc-links/Pat_Knoll_Paper.rtf Searching for Procedural Rules for Decision Making in Policy Governance {{Portal bar, Politics

Application to organizations

Survey of usage in organizations

''Robert's Rules of Order''

''The Standard Code of Parliamentary Procedure''

''Demeter's Manual of Parliamentary Law and Procedure''

Legislative assemblies

Parliaments

Legislatures in the United States

References

Further reading

Non-legislative authorities

Legislative authorities

Comparative

Study guides and textbooks

External links