Discover

A 'Parliamentary Authority' is a generic term for a book with procedural rules for the conduct of meetings; it is synonymous with the terms rules of order and "parliamentary manual." The society generally adopts such a book to cover meeting procedure not covered in the society's adoptive procedural rules^[1]
[2]
[3].
The most commonly used parliamentary authority in the United States is Robert's Rules of Order (correct title: ''Robert's Rules of Order Newly Revised'', tenth edition, and abbreviated as ''RONR'') followed by ''The Standard Code of Parliamentary Procedure'' (abbreviated as ''TSC'' and "Sturgis," after the original author). Both books, along with numerous others, are commercially available.
Rules in a parliamentary authority can be superseded by the group's constitution, bylaws or by adopted procedural rules(with a few exceptions). In ''RONR'' the adopted procedural rules are called special rules of order.
Some groups write their own parliamentary authority specific to that group.
Assemblies that do not adopt a parliamentary authority may use an existing parliamentary authority by custom, or may consider themselves governed by the "common parliamentary law^[4]," or "common law of parliamentary procedure^[5]," both nebulous terms.
1. ''Robert's Rules of Order Newly Revised'', pp. 15, 561-2 (2000)
2. ''The Standard Code of Parliamentary Procedure'', p. 5 (2001)
3. ''Mason's Manual of Legislative Procedure'', pp. 28-9 (2000)
4. ''Robert's Rules of Order Newly Revised'', pp. 15 (2000)
5. ''Mason's Manual of Legislative Procedure'', p. 30 (2000)

Contents

External Links

External Links

★ The Official Robert's Rules site