Guillotine - Definition - Law Dictionary Home Dictionary Definition guillotine

Definition :

Guillotine, is an instrument for beheading, Webster's American Dictionary, p. 849.

Is a method of preventing obstruction by fixing times at which parts of Bill must be voted on, The Concise Oxford Dictionary, H.W. Fowler and F.G. Fowler, p. 548.

Is the most drastic method of curtailing debate in a legislature, Parliamentary Practice, Erskine May, 22nd Edn., 1997, p. 410.

In the House of commons, guillotine can be applied only after passing a motion for the purpose in the House. It is applied to the various stages of Bills and in designed to expedite their passage by means of a time table allotting a certain number of days to the different stages of the Bill and at the end of the allotted time the question under consideration is put without any further debate, The Office of the Speaker in the Parliaments of Commonwealth, Wilding and Philips Laundry, p. 335.

Which is a colloquial term, is technically known as 'allocation of time orders', Parliamentary Dictionary, L.A. Abraham and SC. Hawtrey, 1956, p. 103.