Amendment

Amendment, in legislation, the alteration of a legislative motion or bill, an existing statute, a constitutional provision, or a regulation. In parliamentary procedure, an amendment may be a motion, bill, or resolution. When adopted in accordance with the rules of parliamentary procedure, an amendment becomes a part of the original motion or bill. Amendment of bills during parliamentary procedure reflects the balance of power between the legislature and the executive: thus, in France under the Fifth Republic few amendments are made to legislation by the National Assembly; while in Great Britain amendments are sometimes made to bills when a government cannot command a working majority on a particular issue. Schisms within Japan's ruling coalition forced amendment of the contentious electoral reform legislation finally passed by the Diet in January 1994. Constitutional amendment depends on the provisions of the constitutions themselves: so-called entrenched constitutions are protected against frequent amendment by their own articles. The United States has a specially important history of constitutional amendments. The method of amending the Constitution is provided by Article V. According to this article, an amendment passes after a two-thirds vote of both houses of Congress or after the petition of two-thirds of the state legislatures. The first ten amendments, passed in 1791, became the Bill of Rights. The Fourteenth Amendment of the Constitution (passed 1868) has become the legal basis for promotion of equality, especially racial equality. In the law of pleading and practice, an amendment corrects an error or defect in a pleading or judicial proceeding in the progress of an action or other proceeding.