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Office of Procedure

The Office of Procedure interprets parliamentary and democratic procedure.

It:

The Office of Procedure is a panel of officials called Parliamentarians. The Office of Procedure acts through majority vote. If the vote of Parliamentarians (or Chairs acting as Parliamentarians) results in a tie, the tie is broken by the opinion of the most senior one. The Office of Procedure may delegate its collective power to staff or to individual Parliamentarians.

The vote of an individual Parliamentarian on an issue is called a parliamentarian opinion, and the decision of the majority of the Parliamentarians is called a ruling. Each Parliamentarians is bound to issue parliamentarian opinions according to the bylaws and rules in effect, but she or he does not need to hold a hearing, meet with the other Parliamentarians, or go through any formal procedure, before issuing a parliamentarian opinion. A parliamentarian opinion may contain a justification as well as a vote. All parliamentarian opinions are published.

Neither the Parliamentarians nor their staff, individually or collectively, may vote or otherwise participate in the substantive discussion within the bodies which they chair.

See the method of selection of Judges and Parliamentarians.

A ruling of the office of procedure can be overturned by the same method as to make an exception to the constitution.