Constitutional Amendment

Explanation

A constitutional amendment is a formal change to the text or interpretation of a country's constitution. Because constitutions are meant to be stable frameworks, amending them is deliberately harder than passing ordinary laws. In the United States, amendments require two-thirds of both chambers of Congress and ratification by three-quarters of state legislatures. In Germany, constitutional amendments need two-thirds of both the Bundestag and Bundesrat. In France, amendments can go through parliament (three-fifths of a joint session) or referendum. Some constitutional provisions are unamendable — Germany's Basic Law protects human dignity and the federal structure from any amendment. The difficulty of amendment shapes how constitutions evolve over time.