Editing Constitutional amendment (section)

===Austria===
The [[Constitution of Austria]] is unusually liberal in terms of constitutional amendments. Any piece of parliamentary legislation can be designated as "constitutional law", i.e., as a part of the constitution if the required supermajority and other formalities for an amendment are met. An amendment may take the form of a change of the ''[[Federal Constitutional Law (Austrian act)|Bundes-Verfassungsgesetz]]'', the centerpiece of the constitution, a change to another constitutional act, a new constitutional act, or of a section of constitutional law in a non-constitutional act. Furthermore, [[international treaty|international treaties]] can be enacted as constitutional law, as happened in the case of the [[European Convention of Human Rights]]. Over the decades, frequent amendments and, in some cases, the intention to immunize pieces of legislation from [[judicial review]], have led to much "constitutional garbage" consisting of hundreds of constitutional provisions spread all over the legal system. This has led to calls for reform.{{Citation needed|date=April 2010}}

A majority of two-thirds in the [[National Council of Austria|National Council]] is all that is required for an amendment to take effect. Only in the case of a fundamental change (''Gesamtänderung'') of the constitution a confirmation by referendum is required. Since 1945, this has only happened once when Austria's accession to the European Union was approved by popular vote.

If a constitutional amendment limits the powers of the states, a two-thirds majority in the [[Federal Council of Austria]] is required as well. Depending on the matter on hand, two-thirds of the Federal Councilors present (attendance of one-half of all Councilors is required), or two-thirds of all Federal Councilors must approve. If the amendment would change articles 34 or 35, the majority of councilors of at least four of the nine states is an additional requirement.