Conversely, they can be appended to the constitution as supplemental additions (codicils), thus changing the frame of government without altering the existing text of the document.
There are a number of formal differences, from one jurisdiction to another, in the manner in which constitutional amendments are both originally drafted and written down once they become law.
In some jurisdictions, such as Ireland, Estonia, and Australia, constitutional amendments originate as bills and become laws in the form of acts of parliament.
Thus, for example, in Ireland and Australia although amendments are drafted in the form of Acts of Parliament they cannot become law until they have been approved in a referendum.
In Ethiopia's federal experience, each regional state is equal and has the right to veto amendments to the aforementioned articles.
Section 1, which defines South Africa as "one, sovereign, democratic state" and lists its founding values, is a specially entrenched clause and can only be amended by an absolute three-quarters supermajority in the National Assembly and six of the provinces in the NCOP.
A Constitutional amendment shall be promulgated by the Executive Committees of the Chamber of Deputies and Federal Senate, taking the next sequential number.
State legislatures have however, at various times, used their power to apply for a national convention in order to pressure Congress into proposing a desired amendment.
An amendment with an attached deadline that is not ratified by the required number of states within the set time period is considered inoperative and rendered moot.
With the initiative method, an amendment is proposed by a petition signed by voters equal in number to 8% of the votes for all candidates for governor at the last gubernatorial election.
With the legislative method, the Tennessee General Assembly passes a resolution calling for an amendment and stating its wording.
[citation needed] A proposed amendment must be approved by an absolute supermajority of two-thirds of the elected membership of each house of the legislature.
[13] The 'basic structure' includes the supremacy of the Constitution, the rule of law, Independence of the judiciary, doctrine of separation of powers, federalism, secularism, sovereign democratic republic, the parliamentary system of government, the principle of free and fair elections, welfare state, etc.
As a result, in order to ensure that Japan would not be a source of future aggression, a special portion was written into the document in the form of "Article 9: Renunciation of War".
It describes as follows: Aspiring sincerely to an international peace based on justice and order, the Japanese people forever renounce war as a sovereign right of the nation and the threat or use of force as means of settling international disputes.In order to accomplish the aim of the preceding paragraph, land, sea, and air forces, as well as other war potential, will never be maintained.
Furthermore, international treaties can be enacted as constitutional law, as happened in the case of the European Convention of Human Rights.
If a constitutional amendment limits the powers of the states, a two-thirds majority in the Federal Council of Austria is required as well.
This is done by means of two so-called Declarations of Revision of the Constitution, one adopted by the Chamber of Representatives and the Senate, and one signed by the King and the Federal Government.
Several constitutional reforms were attempted between 2006 and 2014, to ensure its compliance with the case law of the European Convention on Human Rights in the Sejdić and Finci v. Bosnia and Herzegovina and following cases (Zornic, Pilav) regarding ethnic- and residence-based discrimination in passive electoral rights for the Presidency and House of Peoples.
In the case of an international treaty regarding a peace settlement, the preparation of a peace settlement, or the phasing out of an occupation regime, or designed to promote the defense of the Federal Republic, it shall be sufficient, for the purpose of making clear that the provisions of this Basic Law do not preclude the conclusion and entry into force of the treaty, to add language to the Basic Law that merely makes this clarification.Any such law shall be carried by two thirds of the Members of the Bundestag and two thirds of the votes of the Bundesrat.Amendments to this Basic Law affecting the division of the Federation into Länder, their participation on principle in the legislative process, or the principles laid down in Articles 1 and 20 shall be inadmissible.The third paragraph was made by its framers to protect the country against a future totalitarian regime such as that of Nazi Germany.
The Constitution of Ireland can only be modified by referendum, following proposal approved by the lower and upper houses of the Oireachtas, amongst citizens entitled to vote for the President.
A bill to amend the Constitution may be submitted by the following: at least one-fifth of the statutory number of Deputies; the Senate; or the President of the Republic.2.
The adoption by the Sejm of a bill amending the provisions of Chapters I, II or XII of the Constitution shall take place no sooner than 60 days after the first reading of the bill.6.
After conclusion of the procedures specified in paras 4 and 6 above, the Marshal of the Sejm shall submit the adopted statute to the President of the Republic for signature.
At least nine months shall elapse between the first submission of the amendment proposal and the date of the election, unless an exception is granted by the Committee on the Constitution with a majority of five sixths of its members.
One third of members of the Riksdag can also call for a binding referendum on a draft constitutional measure which already passed the first vote.
In the United Kingdom, devoid of a written constitution and exercising pure parliamentary sovereignty, the final authority on all quasi-constitutional matters is ultimately the parliament itself (the legislature), by a simple majority.
This means that when the legislature wishes to make changes to constitutional matters (i.e. relating to the machinery of government), there can be no entrenchment clause or special procedure which can stand in its way.
as a weakness of entrenchment clauses in the British system, but others contend it represents an unbridled democratic power of the electorate to effect rapid and dramatic change.
Thus in the British system no parliament can bind its successor, it cannot pass an effective entrenchment clause seeking to tie the hand of future governments.