In parliamentary procedure

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...

, "recess" refers to legislative

Legislature

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 to raise or lower taxes and adopt the budget and...

 bodies—such as parliament

Parliament

A parliament is a legislature, especially in those countries whose system of government is based on the Westminster system modeled after that of the United Kingdom. The name is derived from the French , the action of parler : a parlement is a discussion. The term came to mean a meeting at which...

s, assemblies

Deliberative assembly

A deliberative assembly is an organization comprising members who use parliamentary procedure to make decisions. In a speech to the electorate at Bristol in 1774, Edmund Burke described the English Parliament as a "deliberative assembly," and the expression became the basic term for a body of...

, juries

Jury

A jury is a sworn body of people convened to render an impartial verdict officially submitted to them by a court, or to set a penalty or judgment. Modern juries tend to be found in courts to ascertain the guilt, or lack thereof, in a crime. In Anglophone jurisdictions, the verdict may be guilty,...

—that are released to reassemble at a later time. The members may leave the meeting room, but are expected to remain nearby. A recess may be simply to allow a break (e.g. for lunch) or it may be related to the meeting (e.g. to allow time for vote-counting).

Explanation and use

Sometimes the line between a recess and an adjournment can be fine. A break for lunch can be more in the nature of a recess or an adjournment depending on the time and the extent of dispersion of the members required for them to be served. But at the resumption of business after a recess, there are never any "opening" proceedings such as reading of minutes; business picks up right where it left off. The distinction of whether the assembly recesses or adjourns has implications related to the admissibility of a motion to reconsider and enter on the minutes

Reconsider and enter on the minutes

The motion to reconsider and enter on the minutes is a special form of the motion to reconsider that automatically halts a passed motion from taking effect until it is called up at another meeting, which cannot be held on the same day...

 and the renewability of the motion to suspend the rules

Suspend the rules

In parliamentary procedure, suspension of the rules is a procedure in which a deliberative assembly sets aside its normal rules of order in order to do something that it could not do otherwise.-Background and rationale:...

.

Robert's Rules of Order Newly Revised (RONR)

Under the commonly used Robert's Rules of Order

Robert's Rules of Order

Robert's Rules of Order is the short title of a book containing rules of order intended to be adopted as a parliamentary authority for use by a deliberative assembly written by Brig. Gen...

, a motion

Motion (parliamentary procedure)

In parliamentary procedure, a motion is a formal proposal by a member of a deliberative assembly that the assembly take certain action. In a parliament, this is also called a parliamentary motion and includes legislative motions, budgetary motions, supplementary budgetary motions, and petitionary...

 to recess may not be called when another person has the floor, is not reconsiderable, and requires a second and a majority vote. When adopted, it has immediate effect.

If made when business is pending, it is an undebatable, privileged

Privileged motion

A privileged motion is a motion in parliamentary procedure that is granted precedence over ordinary business because it concerns matters of great importance or urgency...

 motion. It can be modified only by amendment of the length of the break.

Related Motions

• Stand at ease is a form of Recess in which the members remain in place but may converse while waiting for the meeting to resume.
• Adjourn