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European Union (Amendment) Bill

I thought that the noble Lord had sat down and I did not catch his last sentence. It is not right to say that the court can assume jurisdiction. The European Court of Justice’s role is to look at and interpret how the institutions of the European Union are interpreting the law and make sure that the law in each country is relevant, appropriate and put into practice properly. The UK Government have for many years supported the role of the European Court of Justice in doing that. If you wish to make law stick across member states, it is important for there to be a legal body that can determine that that law has been put into practice properly. That has been the tradition of this country for hundreds and thousands of years. It is very important. Noble Lords may not always like the decisions and judgments of European courts—indeed, on occasion they dislike the decisions of the domestic courts. None the less, I have stated the purpose of the courts. Therefore, I contest the idea that the role of the European Court of Justice is somehow to land grab by making decisions in the way that has been described. The noble Lord who raised the issue of health is, in a sense, referring to the working time directive and I will make comment on that shortly. It is about making sure that the interpretation of the law in terms of where that principle sits is correct and proper. But when one looks at the charter and the list of where all of the articles come from and where they are grounded—whether it is in the European Convention on Human Rights—