The legal literacy of a simple layman always left much to be desired. Subtleties that are understandable to the "savvy" lawyer are inaccessible to ordinary citizens. Nevertheless, some terms are directly related even to a person who is far from jurisprudence. Indeed, in their social activity people willingly or not attend all kinds of meetings. And there one can often hear such phrases: “The quorum was checked by the counting commission” or “The meeting of the owners did not decide on this issue because the quorum did not take place.”
Armed with dictionaries and other special literature, you can find out that the word "quorum" has the following meaning.
Not every meeting is competent to make decisions
When people gather for meetings and meetings, they approve a specific agenda. That is a list of those issues that will be discussed at the meeting. On some of these issues decisions will be made.
However, the law dictates that not every meeting can make decisions. And here the founders, say, LLC and their colleagues or, for example, members of a joint-stock company can not do without knowing the meaning of the word "quorum". After all, it is precisely because of his absence that the meeting can be considered unauthorized.
The charter of the organization determines the quorum of the meeting. This term refers to the number of participants in the meeting, which makes them competent to make any decisions on agenda items.
The roots of the word quorum in Roman law
The word “quorum” (pronounced with an emphasis on o), like many other terms in the field of law, came from Latin. Which is not surprising, since Latin - the language of Roman law - is considered international for legal terminology. What is the meaning of the word “quorum”, this ancient formula used so far? If we literally translate the expression quorum praesentia sufficit, we get the statement "of which there is enough presence."
The nuances of determining quorum
Not only the number of those present, but also the ratio of such as a percentage of the total number of members of a body can determine the quorum. There are different options for it.
- Present are more than 50% (or more than two thirds) of the total composition.
- Eligible voters (more than half) participated in the vote.
There are several types of quorum definitions:
- It is determined when participants only register (at the very beginning of a meeting or meeting). Next is the report of the counting board on what the appearance is and whether or not there is a quorum.
- Event participants may request a quorum.
- Entering the room, as well as leaving it, are constantly taken into account. It does the counting commission or the electronic system.
Moreover, it is important that each issue under discussion has its own quorum requirements for decision-making.
This is the meaning of the word “quorum” in the modern practice of meetings and meetings.