ASSEMBLY
assembly. 1. A group of persons organized and united for some common purpose.
delegate assembly.See CONVENTION(4).
deliberative assembly.Parliamentary law. A body that transacts business according to
parliamentary law. • A deliberative assembly typically has several distinctive characteristics: (1) it
is a group of people who meet all together to propose, discuss, and possibly vote on courses of
action to be undertaken in the group’s name; (2) participants are free to use their own judgment; (3)
enough people participate that a certain degree of formality in proceedings is desirable; (4) each
participant has one vote and may dissent without fear of expulsion; and (5) when some members
are absent, the members actually present have the authority to act for the entire group (subject to
quorum and other requirements). See Henry M. Robert, Robert’s Rules of Order Newly Revised§
1, at 2 (10th ed. 2000).
ordinary assembly.Parliamentary law. A deliberative assembly other than a legislative body.
riotous assembly.Hist. An unlawful assemblage of 12 or more persons causing a disturbance
of the peace. See RIOT. [Cases: Riot 1. C.J.S. Riot; Insurrection §§ 2–10.]
unlawful assembly.A meeting of three or more persons who intend either to commit a violent
crime or to carry out some act, lawful or unlawful, that will constitute a breach of the peace. Cf.
RIOT. [Cases: Unlawful Assembly 1. C.J.S. Unlawful Assembly §§ 2–5, 9–13.]
“In order that the assembly may be ‘unlawful,’ it is not necessary that the object of the
meeting should itself be illegal. The test is, not the illegality of the purpose for which the persons
are met, but the danger to the peace which their meeting involves. The mere fact, therefore, that
the purpose is unlawful is not enough; it must be shown that it involves reasonable apprehension
of a breach of the peace. Thus, if a number of persons meet to plan a fraud, they may be guilty of a
conspiracy, but their meeting is not an unlawful assembly.” 4 Stephen’s Commentaries on the
Laws of England 135–36 (L. Crispin Warmington ed., 21st ed. 1950).
“An unlawful assembly differs from a riot in that if the parties assemble in a tumultuous
manner, and actually execute their purpose with violence, it is a riot; but if they merely meet on a
purpose, which, if executed, would make them rioters, and, having done nothing, they separate
without carrying their purpose into effect, it is an unlawful assembly.” 77 C.J.S. Riot;
Insurrection§ 2, at 565 (1994).
- In many states, the lower house of a legislature. 3.Parliamentary law.
CONVENTION(4).4.Patents. In a patent claim, a collection of parts used to form a structure.[Blacks Law 8th]