European Union (Amendment) Bill

If there are problems with having only six days, we on these Benches would be quite happy to extend until midnight from now on in order to make sure that we get this through. However, I hope that it may expedite discussion on later amendments—since we have extended from discussing the charter to the role of the Court of Justice as a whole—if I ask the Conservative Front Bench, when summing up, to spell out its view on the role of the Court. In this debate, we have heard a number of noble Lords objecting to the idea of any foreign court having jurisdiction over British law and any limitations on the British Parliament. The noble Lord, Lord Kingsland, will be aware that there is a parallel debate in the United States to the one that we are having in the United Kingdom on exactly this subject. Radical defenders of sovereignty—for example, Professor Alan Dershowitz at Harvard Law School, Justice Scalia on the US Supreme Court, the current Attorney-General, Alberto Gonzalez, and others —take the view that it is not possible to accept international law overriding US domestic law and that the expansion of international law, conventions and institutions cannot be allowed to affect the United States. That is much the same argument as we have been hearing from a number of noble Lords, including Members on the Conservative Front Bench, about the European Court of Justice. I would like the noble Lord, Lord Kingsland, to clarify whether he shares that view. In the United States, it has led to an argument that says, ““We cannot accept further UN conventions, particularly those that involve such human rights issues as the protection of children””. Leading on from that is the argument that the United States must reject the Geneva Convention and a whole host of other things, in defence of the sovereignty of the American constitution and the US Congress. That is a similar argument to the one advanced by some noble Lords and which will no doubt be repeated on future amendments when we get down to the role of the ECJ in general. It would be helpful if the Conservative Front Bench would spell out whether it shares this view or has a rather more nuanced one. In a world that is increasingly globalised, we have to share sovereignty both regionally and globally. It is convenient on occasions to negotiate agreements within a European Union in which we share sovereignty with a rather smaller number of Governments of rather more like mind. There are positive aspects to that.