European Union (Amendment) Bill

Can the noble and learned Lord answer two questions, which arise from his eminent intervention? He said that the Court’s powers are limited and that, although there is no appeal against the judgments as such, national parliaments and the Council and so on are free to revisit the judgments by going back, passing laws and reaching unanimity in the Council to reverse what the Court has said. Therefore, my first question is: can he give your Lordships any example of where that has happened since we joined the European Community in 1972, leaving out, I suggest, the Factortame case, where the United Kingdom Parliament attempted to reverse a treaty provision and a Court judgment, and failed? What examples are there of this theory in practice? Secondly, does the noble and learned Lord feel that anything that he said disagrees with the judgment of the Court that I read out? I shall read one sentence of it again: "““Article 1 of the Single European Act makes it clear that the objective of all the Community treaties is to contribute together to making concrete progress towards European unity””." The Court went on to say that the treaties are, "““only a means for attaining those objectives””," and that those objectives should be—