A 1953 study defines the rules of procedure of a conference as ‘all the rules and practices which determine the status of each of the participants in an international conference and the conduct of the discussions until the conference adopts its final decision’. The temporary nature of rules of procedure of conferences was emphasised by Tammes in a lecture at the Hague Academy in 1958: ‘The conference is a preparatory phase in a law making process; a passing event doomed to be buried in archives together with all its rules and its organisational structure and leaving behind nothing except the living results.’

An examination of State practice at international conferences reveals however that the rules of procedure and their interpretation follow remarkably consistent patterns. Conferences and assemblies of different organisations tend to reach similar conclusions on procedural issues. Oppenheim's Treatise states that ‘the degree to which they [conferences] follow a similar pattern and the frequency with which they are held is such that they may be regarded in some sense as one of the regular institutions of the international community’. Conferences do not in fact draft rules of procedure de novo without reference to previous practice. The fate of rules of procedure of past conferences is not quite as morbid as Professor Tammes feared.

Parliamentary procedure is a vital element of all democratic institutions. During a UN Security Council debate, US representative Senator Moynihan described due procedure as ‘not an aspect of governance, it is the essence of government’.