SESSION

The sitting of a court, legislature, council, commission, etc., for the transaction of its proper business. Hence, the period of time, within any one day, during which such body is assembled in form, and engaged in the transaction of business, or, in a more extended sense, the whole space of time from its first assembling to its prorogation or adjournment sine die. Synonyms. Strictly speaking, the word “session,” as applied to a court of justice, ia not synonymous with the word “term.” The “session” of a court is the time during which it actually sits for the transaction of judicial business, and hence terminates each day with the rising of the court. A “term” of court is the period fixed by law, usually embracing many days or weeks, during which it shall be open for the transaction of judicial business and during which it may hold sessions from day to day. But this distinction is not always observed, many authorities using the two words interchangeably. Court of session. The supreme civil court of Scotland, instituted A. D. 1532, consisting of thirteen (formerly fifteen) judges, viz., the lord president, the lord justice clerk, and eleven ordinary lords. General sessions. A court of record, in England, held by two or more justices of the peace, for the execution of the authority given them by the commission of the peace and certain statutes. General sessions held at certain times in the four quarters of the year pursuant to St. 2 Hen. V. are properly called “quarter sessions,” (q. v.,) but intermediate general sessions may also be held. Sweet. Great session of Wales. A court which was abolished by St. 1 Wm. IV. c. 70. The proceedings now issue out of the courts at Westminster, and two of the judges of the superior courts hold the circuits in Wales and Cheshire, as in other English counties. Wharton. Joint session. In parliamentary practice, a meeting together and commingling of the two houses of a legislative body, sitting and acting together as one body, instead of separately in their respective houses. Snow v. Hudson, 56 Kan. 378, 43 Pac. 262. Petty sessions. In English law. A special or petty session is sometimes kept in corporations and counties at large by a few justices, for dispatching smaller business in the neighborhood between the times of the general sessions; as for licensing alehouses, passing the accounts of the parish officers, etc.. Brown. Quarter sessions. See that title. Regular session. An ordinary, general, or stated session, (as of a legislative body,) as distinguished from a special or extra session. Session lairs. The name commonly given to the body of laws enacted by a state legislature at one of its annual or biennial sessions. So called to distinguish them from the “compiled laws” or “revised statutes” of the state. Session of the peace, in English law, is a sitting of justices of the peace for the exercise of their powers. There are four kinds,petty, special, quarter, and general sessions. Sessional orders. Certain resolutions which are agreed to by both houses at the commencement of every session of the English parliament, and have relation to the business and convenience thereof; but they are not intended to continue in force beyond the session in which they are adopted. They are principally of use as directing the order of business. Brown. Sessions. A sitting of justices in court upon their commission, or by virtue of their appointment, and most commonly for the trial of criminal cases. The title of several courts in England and the United States, chiefly those of criminal jurisdiction. Burrill. Special sessions. In English law. , A meeting of two or more justices of the peace held for a special purpose, (such as the licensing of alehouses,) either as required by statute or when specially convoked, which can only be convened after notice to all the other magistrates of the division, to give them an opportunity of attending. Stone, J. Pr. 52, 55.