author - "Henry M. Robert"
s can bemade, what is their order of precedence, which can be debated, what istheir effect, etc., the common law of the land is settled by thepractice of the U. S. House of Representatives, and not by that of theEnglish Parliament, the U. S. Senate, or any other body.
While in extreme cases there is no difficulty in deciding the questionas to whether the practice of Congress determines the commonparliamentary law, yet between these extremes there must necessarily bea large number of doubtful cases upon which there would be greatdifference of opinion, and to avoid the serious difficulties alwaysarising from a lack of definiteness in the law, every deliberativeassembly should imitate our legislative bodies in adopting Rules ofOrder for the conduct of their business.* [Where the practice ofCongress differs from that of Parliament upon a material point, thecommon law of this country follows the practice of Congress. Thus inevery American deliberative assembly having no rules for conductingbusin
s can bemade, what is their order of precedence, which can be debated, what istheir effect, etc., the common law of the land is settled by thepractice of the U. S. House of Representatives, and not by that of theEnglish Parliament, the U. S. Senate, or any other body.
While in extreme cases there is no difficulty in deciding the questionas to whether the practice of Congress determines the commonparliamentary law, yet between these extremes there must necessarily bea large number of doubtful cases upon which there would be greatdifference of opinion, and to avoid the serious difficulties alwaysarising from a lack of definiteness in the law, every deliberativeassembly should imitate our legislative bodies in adopting Rules ofOrder for the conduct of their business.* [Where the practice ofCongress differs from that of Parliament upon a material point, thecommon law of this country follows the practice of Congress. Thus inevery American deliberative assembly having no rules for conductingbusin