CONGRESS - The Law Mind Legal Dictionary

CONGRESSAuthored

The Law Mind • 903 words

Definition

United States Legislature. The national legislative body of the United States, established by Article I of the Constitution, consisting of two chambers: the Senate and the House of Representatives. Congress exercises the federal legislative power — the authority to enact laws, levy taxes, appropriate funds, declare war, regulate commerce, and perform other enumerated and implied functions under the Constitution. Each Congress corresponds to a two-year term aligned with House elections.

International Law. A formal assembly of envoys, commissioners, or plenipotentiaries from different sovereignties convened to address matters of common concern — typically peace negotiations, treaty formation, or the settlement of international disputes. Historical examples include the Congress of Vienna (1814–1815) and the Congress of Berlin (1878). Distinguished from a conference, which is consultative in nature and typically produces a protocol rather than a binding treaty.

Legislative Procedure. In some legislative usage, a congress may refer to a joint committee or mutual consultation between two chambers of a legislature when the houses cannot agree — a meaning now largely displaced by the term "conference committee."

Common Language

Modern common usage (Wiktionary): To assemble together; to meet in a congress.

Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): A meeting of individuals, whether friendly or hostile; an encounter. Also used, now obsolete, to refer to a sudden collision of physical objects, or to sexual intercourse between a male and female.

The legal meaning of Congress has no meaningful gap with modern common usage when referring to the U.S. legislature — that meaning is well established in ordinary English. The gap worth noting is historical: the older English senses of the word (physical encounter, collision, sexual congress) appear in pre-nineteenth-century legal documents and period sources, and researchers encountering those uses in historical materials should not read them as legislative references.

Common Confusion

Congress vs. Conference Committee. In modern legislative practice, when the Senate and House pass different versions of a bill, a conference committee is appointed to reconcile differences. Bouvier preserves an older usage where "congress" could describe this mutual consultation process. Researchers working with nineteenth-century legislative materials may encounter "congress" used in this procedural sense and should not assume it refers to the full legislative body.

Congress vs. Parliament. In comparative legal materials, "congress" is sometimes used loosely to mean any national legislature. Technically, Congress refers specifically to the bicameral U.S. federal legislature. Analogous bodies in other systems (Parliament, Diet, Bundestag) are governed by entirely different constitutional frameworks and should not be treated as interchangeable.

Why It Matters in Research

The dual meaning — domestic legislature and international assembly — creates real ambiguity in historical legal documents, particularly materials from the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. A reference to "Congress" in a pre-1789 document may mean an international convening body (such as the Continental Congress, which operated under the Articles of Confederation) rather than the constitutional legislature created in 1789. The Continental Congress was not a bicameral legislature; conflating it with the post-ratification Congress produces serious historical errors.

For international law research, distinguish between "congress" and "conference" carefully. Historical sources, including Bouvier, preserve the distinction: a congress could conclude a treaty; a conference produced a protocol. This distinction matters when interpreting the legal weight of instruments produced by nineteenth-century international assemblies.

Researchers using the Law Mind corpus should note that Anderson's Dictionary of Law connects this term directly to the constitutional framework — the entry trails into the Article I grant of legislative powers. That connection is navigationally useful: questions about the scope of congressional authority require simultaneous engagement with constitutional sources, not just legislative materials.

The term "Congress" also appears with a specific numerical identifier in practice (the 118th Congress, the 73rd Congress) that calibrates what statutes, resolutions, and procedural rules were operative at a given time. Researchers locating historical legislation must identify the correct Congress to find applicable session law.

Historical Dictionary Support

The historical sources converge on the two core meanings without significant disagreement. Black's (both editions), Burrill, and Rapalje & Lawrence align closely: Congress in American law is the national legislature; in international law, an assembly of national representatives. Burrill is the most etymologically transparent, tracing the term to the Latin congressus (from congredi, to come together), which reinforces the older English senses visible in Webster's 1913.

Bouvier is the outlier in one respect: it preserves the procedural legislative meaning — mutual consultation between chambers — that the other sources do not foreground. This reflects Bouvier's practical orientation toward legislative process rather than constitutional structure.

None of the historical dictionaries address the distinction between the Continental Congress and the constitutional Congress in any depth, which is a notable gap. Researchers should not rely on these entries to navigate pre-1789 materials without supplemental constitutional history sources.

Jurisdictional Note

"Congress" as used in American law refers exclusively to the federal legislature. State legislative bodies are not called congresses; they are generally styled as legislatures, assemblies, or general assemblies. The term carries no established meaning at the state level.

Encyclopedia Cross-Reference

See Law Mind Encyclopedia: Legislative Power; Separation of Powers; Article I (U.S. Constitution); Treaty Power

CONGRESSmain

Black's Law Dictionary • 1891

In international law. An assembly of envoys, commissioners, dep- uties, etc., from different sovereignties who meet to concert measures for their common good, or to adjust their mutual concerns. In American law. The name of the leg islative assembly of the United States, com- posed of the senate and house of representa- tives, (q. v.)

CONGRESSmain

Bouvier's Law Dictionary • 1928

In Legislation. Mutual consultations by two committees appointed, one by each house of a legislature, in cases where the houses cannot agree in their action.

CONGRESSmain

Bouvier's Law Dictionary • 1928

An assembly of depu- ties convened from different governments to treat of peace or of other international affairs; as the Congress of Berlin to settle the terms of peace between Russia and Turkey in 1878, composed of representations of the great Powers of Europe In theory a congress may conclude a treaty, while a conference is for consulta- tion, and its result, ordinarily a protocol, prepares the way for a treaty. See Cent. Dict.; Encyc. Dict. But this is not always true, as the Berlin conference of 1889 was composed of plenipotentiaries and its delib- erations resulted in a treaty. The legislative body of the United States, composed of the senate and house of repre- sentatives (q. v.). U. S. Const. art. 1, § 1. Each house is the judge of the election and qual ifications of its members. A majority of each house is a quorum; but a smaller number may adjourn from day to day, and compel the attendance of ab- sent members. Each house may make rules, punish its members, and by a two-thirds vote expel a mem- ber. Each house must keep a journal and publish the same, excepting such parts as may, in their judg- ment, require secrecy, and record the yeas and nays at the desire of one-fifth of the members pres- ent. Art. 1, s. 5. A court is bound to assume that the journal speaks the truth and cannot receive oral testimony to impeach its correctness; 144 U. S. 1. The members of both houses are in all cases, ex- cept treason, felony, and breach of the peace, priv- ileged from arrest while attending to and returning from the session of their respective houses; and no member can be questioned ed in any other place for any speech or debate in either house. U. S. Const. art. 1, s. 6. Each house of congress has claimed and exercised the power to punish contempts and breaches of its privileges, on the ground that all public fune- tionaries are essentially invested with the powers of self-preservation, and that whenever authorities are given, the means of carrying them into execution. are given by necessary implication. Jefferson. Manual, $ 3, art. Privilege; Duane's Case, Senate Proceedings, Gales and Seaton's Annals of Cong., 6th Congress, pp. 122-124, 184, and Index; Wolcott's Case. Journal Hou. Reps. 1st. Sess. 35th Congress, pp. 371-374, 386-389, 535-539; Irwin's Case, 2d Sess. 43d Congress, Index. In Kilbourn's Case, 103 U. S. 188, it was held that although the house can pun- ish its own members for disorderly conduct or for failure to attend its sessions, and can decide cases of contested elections and deterinine the qual- ifications of its members, and exercise the sole power of impeachment of officers of the govern- ment, and may, when the examination of witnesses is necessary to the performance of these duties, fine or imprison a contumacious witness, there is not found in the constitution any general power vested in either house to punish for contempt. The order of the house ordering the imprisonment of a witness for refusing to answer certain questions put to him by the house, concerning the business of a real estate partnership of which he was a member, and to produce certain books in relation thereto, was held void and no defence on the part of the sergeant-at-arms in an action by the witness for false imprisonment. The members of the com- mittee, who took no actual part in the imprison- ment, were held not liable to such action. cases in which the power had been exercised are numerous. See Barclay, Dig. Rules of Hou. Reps. U. S. tit. Privilege. This power, however, extends no further than imprisonment; and that will con- tinue no further than the duration of the power that imprisons. The imprisonment will therefore terminate with the adjournment or dissolution of congress. The The rules of proceeding in each house are sub- stantially the same the house of representatives choose their own speaker; the vice-president of the United States is, ex officio, president of the senate. For rules of proceeding and forms observed in passing laws, see Barclay's Dig. When a bill is engrossed, and has received the sanction of both houses, it is sent to the president for his approbation. If he approves of the bill, he signs it. If he does not, it is returned, with his ob- jections, to the house in which it originated, and, that house enters the objections at large on its journal and proceeds to reconsider it. If, after such reconsideration, two-thirds of the house agree to pass the bill, it is sent, together with the objec tions, to the other house, by which it is likewise re- considered, and, if approved by two-thirds of that house, it becomes a law. But in all such cases the votes of both houses are determined by yeas and nays, and the names of the persons voting for and against the bill are to be entered on the journal of each house respectively. If any bill shall not be returned by the president within ten days (Sundays excepted) after it shall have been presented to him, the same shall be a law, in like manner as if he h

CONGRESSn.

Websters Unabridged Dictionary (1913) • 1913

A meeting of individuals, whether friendly or hostile; an encounter. [Obs.] Here Pallas urges on, and Lausus there;congress in the field great Jove withstands. Dryden. A sudden encounter; a collision; a shock; -- said of things. [Obs.] From these laws may be deduced the rules of the congresses and reflections of two bodies. Cheyne. The coming together of a male and female in sexual commerce; the act of coition. Pennant. A gathering or assembly; a conference. A formal assembly, as of princes, deputies, representatives, envoys, or commissioners; esp., a meeting of the representatives of several governments or societies to consider and determine matters of common interest. The European powers strove to . . . accommodate their differences at the congress of Vienna. Alison. The collective body of senators and representatives of the people of a nation, esp. of a republic, constituting the chief legislative body of the nation. The lower house of the Spanish Cortes, the members of which are elected for three years. The Continental Congress, an assembly of deputies from the thirteen British colonies in America, appointed to deliberate in respect to their common interests. They first met in 1774, and from time thereafter until near the close of the Revolution.  -- The Federal Congress, the assembly of representatives of the original States of the American Union, who met under the Articles of Confederation from 1781 till 1789.  -- Congress boot or gaiter, a high shoe or half-boot, coming above the ankle, and having the sides made in part of some elastic material which stretches to allow the boot to be drawn on and off. [U.S.] -- Congress water, a saline mineral water from the Congress spring at Saratoga, in the State of New York.

congressverb

Wiktionary (English) • 2026

Wiktionary contributors • CC BY-SA 4.0 • via Kaikki
Extracted and formatted for display by Law Mind. Source link opens the current Wiktionary page and its contributor history; it is not a frozen copy of this extract.

To assemble together. | To meet in a congress.

congressnoun

Wiktionary (English) • 2026

A formal gathering or assembly of persons; a conference held to discuss or decide on a specific question. | A legislative body of a state, originally the bicameral legislature of the United States of America. | An association, especially one consisting of other associations or representatives of interest groups. | Coitus: sexual intercourse. | A coming together of two or more people; a meeting. | A group of baboons; the collective noun for baboons.

Congressname

Wiktionary (English) • 2026

The two legislative bodies of the United States: the House of Representatives and the Senate. | The legislature of the Philippines. | The legislature of the Philippines. | The House of Representatives of the Philippines. | Clipping of Indian National Congress

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