Parliamentary procedure

Parliamentary procedure is the body of rules, ethics and customs governing meetings and other operations of clubs, organizations, legislative bodies and other deliberative assemblies. Parliamentary procedure is the body of rules, ethics and customs governing meetings and other operations of clubs, organizations, legislative bodies and other deliberative assemblies. In the United Kingdom, Canada, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and other English-speaking countries it is often called chairmanship, chairing, the law of meetings, procedure at meetings or the conduct of meetings. In the United States, parliamentary procedure is also referred to as parliamentary law, parliamentary practice, legislative procedure or rules of order. At its heart is the rule of the majority with respect for the minority. Its object is to allow deliberation upon questions of interest to the organization and to arrive at the sense or the will of the assembly upon these questions. Self-governing organizations follow parliamentary procedure to debate and reach group decisions—usually by vote—with the least possible friction. Rules of order consist of rules written by the body itself (often referred to as bylaws), but also usually supplemented by a published parliamentary authority adopted by the body. Typically, national, state/provincial and other full-scale legislative assemblies have extensive internally written rules of order, whereas non-legislative bodies write and adopt a limited set of specific rules as the need arises. The term gets its name from its use in the parliamentary system of government. In the 16th and 17th century, there were rules of order in the early Parliaments of England. In the 1560s Sir Thomas Smyth began the process of writing down accepted procedures and published a book about them for the House of Commons in 1583. Early rules included The Westminster parliamentary procedures are followed in several Commonwealth countries, including the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, India, and South Africa. In Canada, for example, the House of Commons uses House of Commons Procedure and Practice as its primary procedural authority. Others include Arthur Beauchesne’s Parliamentary Rules and Forms of the House of Commons of Canada, Sir John George Bourinot’s Parliamentary Procedure and Practice in the Dominion of Canada, and Erskine May’s The Law, Privileges, Proceedings and Usage of Parliament from Britain. The rules of the United States Congress were developed from the parliamentary procedures used in Britain. The American parliamentary procedures are followed in many nations, including Indonesia, the Philippines, Mexico and South Korea.