Definition
The formal suspension or dissolution of a session, meeting, or proceeding by a court, legislative body, administrative tribunal, or other authorized officer. Adjournment may be temporary — ending a session with a specified time and place for resumption — or final, in which case it is described as adjournment sine die (without day), meaning the body does not commit to reassembling.
Three functional meanings appear across legal contexts:
1. Court proceedings: A postponement of a hearing, trial, or other judicial business to a later date, either at the discretion of the court or upon motion of a party. Distinct from a continuance in some jurisdictions, though the terms are often used interchangeably.
2. Legislative sessions: The formal close of a sitting of a legislative chamber, either for a recess within a session or as a final adjournment ending the session entirely. Constitutional rules often govern when and how a legislature may adjourn, including whether one house may adjourn without the other's consent.
3. Public meetings and administrative bodies: The act by which any authorized convening body — a board, commission, or public assembly — dissolves its session in accordance with applicable rules of order or statutory procedure.
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Common Language
Modern common usage (Wiktionary): "The state of being adjourned, or action of adjourning."
Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): "The act of adjourning; the putting off till another day or time specified, or without day. The time or interval during which a public body adjourns its sittings or postpones business."
In ordinary language, adjournment simply means a pause or break. The legal meaning carries procedural weight beyond the common usage: an adjournment is a formal act with defined legal consequences — it may affect jurisdiction, statute of limitations tolling, the validity of actions taken before or after the break, and constitutional obligations of legislative bodies. A court that "adjourns" is not merely taking a break; it is formally suspending its business in a manner that the record must reflect.
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Common Confusion
Adjournment is frequently conflated with continuance, particularly in American practice. In many courts, the terms are interchangeable in practice, but in jurisdictions that distinguish them, a continuance refers specifically to the postponement of a scheduled hearing or trial, while adjournment refers to the broader dissolution of a session or sitting. Researchers should verify local usage. Additionally, adjournment sine die is sometimes confused with a final judgment or dismissal — it is neither; it ends the session without scheduling a return, but it does not resolve pending matters on the merits.
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Why It Matters in Research
The distinction between temporary adjournment and adjournment sine die is critical in both legislative and judicial research. In constitutional law, adjournment triggers specific rules: under the U.S. Constitution, the President cannot make recess appointments unless the Senate is in genuine recess, and the two houses cannot independently adjourn for more than three days without mutual consent. Legislative records from the 19th and early 20th centuries use adjournment terminology inconsistently — what is called an "adjournment" in one body's records may function as a recess in modern terminology.
In court records, particularly older state court records, adjournment entries frequently appear without specifying whether the matter was postponed definitively or merely to the following term. This ambiguity can affect reconstructing procedural history. Researchers working in pre-20th-century court files should treat every adjournment notation as ambiguous until context clarifies its effect.
Parliamentary practice materials treat adjournment as a privileged motion with specific procedural rules — a separate body of law from judicial adjournment. Do not assume uniformity across contexts.
The civil law meaning flagged in Black's 2nd Edition — referring to the Roman law practice of ampliatio, a form of postponement in criminal proceedings — appears in Wiktionary's secondary definition. This usage is almost entirely absent from American practice but may surface in comparative law materials or in sources drawing on continental legal tradition.
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Historical Dictionary Support
The historical sources converge on the core meaning without significant divergence. Burrill traces the term to the Law French and Law Latin (adjornamentum, adjurnamentum), defining it as "a putting off to another or further day." Black's (both editions) and Bouvier expand on this with the sine die distinction, which Bouvier ties explicitly to the U.S. Constitution's constraints on legislative adjournment. This constitutional grounding is a point the earlier common-law dictionaries — Burrill in particular — do not address, reflecting their orientation toward English rather than American constitutional practice.
The Rapalje & Lawrence entry included in the source material appears to address ademption rather than adjournment — likely a sourcing or indexing error in the compilation. It contributes nothing to this entry.
Black's 2nd Edition's reference to civil law usage (ampliatio) is a useful flag for researchers but is given no further development. Bouvier's treatment is the most constitutionally aware of the historical sources and remains useful for understanding the legislative context.
None of the historical sources adequately addresses the modern administrative law setting, where adjournment of agency proceedings is governed by statute and regulation rather than common law rules or parliamentary tradition.
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Jurisdictional Note
In American federal practice, the constitutional rules on legislative adjournment (Article I, Section 5) are distinct from the procedural rules governing court adjournment, which are largely governed by court rules and local practice. State legislatures vary in their adjournment rules, and the term "adjournment" may carry different statutory meanings across states — particularly as it relates to the tolling of deadlines or the survival of pending legislation across sessions.
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