1. Parliamentary law. (usu. pl.) A rule or administrative provision adopted by an organization for its internal governance and its external dealings. • Although the bylaws may be an organization’s most authoritative governing document, they are subordinate to a charter or articles of incorporation or association or to a constitution. The “constitution and bylaws” are sometimes a single document. See governing document under DOCUMENT; ARTICLES OF INCORPORATION. Cf. CONSTITUTION. [Cases: Condominium 7; Corporations 54, 113, 116. C.J.S. Corporations §§ 111, 114, 116, 120, 220–225, 233–240, 242; Estates§ 202.]
2. ORDINANCE. — Sometimes spelled by-law; byelaw.
“By-law is now felt to be a compound of the preposition by and law, but originally by was the Danish by ‘town, village’ (found in Derby, Whitby, etc.), and the Danish genitive-ending is preserved in the other English form byr-law.” Otto Jespersen, Growth and Structure of the English Language 75 (9th ed. 1938).
