Session

The sitting of a court, legislature, council, or commission for the transaction of its proper business.

A session can be the period of time within any one day during which the body is assembled and engaged in business. In a more extended sense, the session can be the whole space of time from the first assembling of the body to its adjournment.

A joint session is the convening of the two houses of a legislative body to sit and act together as one body, instead of separately in their respective houses.

As applied to a court, the word session is not strictly synonymous with the word term. The session of a court is the time during which it actually sits each day for the transaction of judicial business. A term of a court is the period fixed by law—usually amounting to many days or weeks—during which it is open for judicial business and during which it can hold sessions from day to day. The two words are, however, frequently used interchangeably.