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meeting in congress

English translation: meeting as the legislature (i.e. law-making body)

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GLOSSARY ENTRY (DERIVED FROM QUESTION BELOW)

English term or phrase:	meeting in congress
English translation:	meeting as the legislature (i.e. law-making body)
Entered by:	Nadia Ayoub

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14:31 May 4, 2011

English to English translations [PRO]
Social Sciences - Government / Politics

English term or phrase: meeting in congress

Per article 89 of the constitution, the prerogative to initiate constitutional revision was split between parliament and the executive with the proposed amendment becoming final only after a referendum vote or where the president chooses to submit the bill for approval to the two houses of parliament meeting in congress.

Thank you!

Nadia Ayoub KudoZ activity Questions: 208 (none open) (3 without valid answers) (5 closed without grading) Answers: 5919 Egypt
Local time: 03:07

meeting as the legislature (i.e. law-making body)

Explanation:
Congress may refer to:

* Congress - a formal meeting of representatives from different countries, states, or organizations.
* The national legislature of various nations – see: Category:National legislatures:
o United States Congress
o Indian Congress party
* Congress Poland
* The Congress - a film directed by Ken Burns.
* Congress Avenue in Austin, Texas

* Congress, a ship caught in a storm at St Ives, Cornwall in 1909.
* Congress is the title of an instrumental on the 2005 Enter the Haggis album, Casualties of Retail.

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Note added at 14 mins (2011-05-04 14:46:03 GMT)
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#
Legislature - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A legislature is a kind of deliberative assembly with the power to pass, amend, and repeal laws. The law created by a legislature is called legislation or statutory law. In addition to enacting laws, legislatures usually have exclusive authority...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legislature - Cached
#
legislature: West's Encyclopedia of American Law (Full ...
legislature n. An officially elected or otherwise selected body of people vested with the responsibility and power to make laws for a political
www.answers.com/topic/legislature - Cached
#
legislature - definition of legislature by the Free Online ...
leg·is·la·ture (l j-sl ch r) n. An officially elected or otherwise selected body of people vested with the responsibility and power to make laws for a political unit, such ...
www.thefreedictionary.com/legislature - Cached

Selected response from:

AllegroTrans
United Kingdom
Local time: 02:07

Grading comment

Thank you!
4 KudoZ points were awarded for this answer

Summary of answers provided

4 +4

meeting as the legislature (i.e. law-making body)

AllegroTrans

4 +1

meeting in congress

Liz Broomfield

Summary of reference entries provided

sitting together OR in congress

B D Finch

Discussion entries: 6

Answers

11 mins confidence:

peer agreement (net): +4

meeting as the legislature (i.e. law-making body)

AllegroTrans
United Kingdom
Local time: 02:07
Works in field
Native speaker of:

English
PRO pts in category: 12

Grading comment

Thank you!

Notes to answerer

Asker: Thank you, it makes sense but I had doubts because when googling it I found references to non-political meetings as well. See this example: http://www.fcem.org/doc.php?mcat=300&mrub=1200&msrub=900&lang=en

1 hr confidence:

peer agreement (net): +1

meeting in congress

Explanation:
The term "congress" is also used in the sense of "joined together" as in (sorry) "sexual congress". So while the two houses are indeed working as the legislature, they can usually do that separately - this is implying that they are sitting at the same time, all together, I think.

Liz Broomfield
United Kingdom
Works in field
Native speaker of:

English
PRO pts in category: 4

Reference comments

3 hrs

Reference: sitting together OR in congress

Reference information:
"Mr Lancelot presented the draft constitutional law on decentralised government (hereafter referred to as the "draft constitutional law"), which should be passed by the French parliament sitting in Congress (both houses combined) in early 2003."
http://www.venice.coe.int/docs/2002/CDL-PV(2002)053-e.asp?Pr...

"... Parliament may by law repeal or alter any of the provisions of this Act: ... shall be passed by both Houses of Parliament sitting together, ..."
en.wikisource.org/wiki/Page:South_Africa_Act_1909.djvu/39 -

I couldn't resist this reference:
"“It is worthy of remark that this is the first time that we can find that the Commons ever separated from the Lords and made a distinct house by themselves, though without a Speaker.”

Later in 1341 after a quarrelsome spat between houses, King Edward III orders them to separate permanently. It seems that while both houses were sitting together the Lords snitched up Commons work in progress to the King. This Order forms part of our written constitution."
http://lordsoftheblog.net/2011/01/17/new-clerk-of-the-parlia...

"This Act may be cited as the South Africa Act, 1909. ..... unless the Bill be passed by both Houses of Parliament sitting together, ..... If a joint sitting of both Houses of Parliament is required under the provisions ..."
en.wikisource.org/wiki/South_Africa_Act_1909

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Note added at 3 hrs (2011-05-04 17:49:58 GMT)
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And from the Constitution of Cameroon:
"4) The two Houses of Parliament shall meet in congress at the request of the President of the Republic
in order to:
- be addressed by or receive a message from the President of the Republic ;
- receive the oath of members of the Constitutional Council;
- take a decision on a draft or proposed constitutional amendment.
When Parliament meets in congress, the Bureau of the National Assembly shall preside over the proceedings."
http://confinder.richmond.edu/admin/docs/Cameroon.pdf

"Thirdly, the President could decide to avoid parliament ..... members of both houses sitting in congress is sufficient. ..."
www.enelsyn.gr/.../Paper by Prof. Charles Manga Fombad.pdf

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Note added at 4 hrs (2011-05-04 18:41:16 GMT)
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And finally, what this is actually about:

"Article 89 of the Constitution of October 4, 1958 sets down the rules for ...

... A revision of the Constitution may be initiated either by the President of the Republic or by the Government.

In this particular field, the two parliamentary assemblies have the same powers. This means that constitutional bill must be passed in identical terms by both the National Assembly and the Senate.

The law is definitively passed either by referendum (a procedure used only once: the 2000 constitutional revision reduced the term of office of the President of the Republic to five years) or by a three-fifths majority of the votes cast by the two assemblies meeting together in Congress at Versailles."

Since 1958, there have been 24 constitutional revisions of differing importance of which 22 were in accordance with article 89 of the Constitution (21 passed by the Congress and 1 by referendum) "
www.assemblee-nationale.fr/english/synthetic_files/file-44....

NB the capital letter. It seems that the two bodies sitting together for this purpose effectively become another institution.

And here is some detail about the Congress Room at Versailles:

" ... it was used for the combined meetings of the deputies and senators coming together in a Congress to adopt constitutional revisions."
http://en.chateauversailles.fr/explore-the-estate/the-palace...

B D Finch
France
Specializes in field
Native speaker of:

English
PRO pts in category: 18

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meeting in congress

English translation: meeting as the legislature (i.e. law-making body)

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