Lord Neill of Bladen: My Lords, I shall make my citation as quickly as possible. I was cut short last time at exactly the same point when the noble Baroness said, "Stop when you get to Poland". The source is in the sixth edition of Professor Hartley's book on European Union law. It is a reference to a website with summarised translations of the Polish judgments, so you do not get the ipsissima verba and thankfully...
Lord Neill of Bladen: moved Amendment No. 27: After Clause 6, insert the following new Clause— "Enforcement of restrictions on jurisdiction of the Court of Justice of the European Union (1) In accordance with Article 2, paragraph 223 of the Treaty of Lisbon, and subject to the limited exceptions specified in the treaties, the Court of Justice of the European Union shall not have jurisdiction with respect to the...
Lord Neill of Bladen: My Lords, in Committee the other day I supported the noble Lord, Lord Waddington, on an amendment that was broadly drawn but which reminded the House of the powers of this Parliament. It was criticised for rather lacking focus, but it gave me a chance to refer to how some other member states handle problems concerned with the scope of the powers of the institutions of the Union. Today, I have...
Lord Neill of Bladen: I had not intended to speak to this amendment. We have heard some significant speeches from people with wide experience who have actually sat in various committee rooms into the middle of the night. I have had none of that experience; I am simply a Cross-Bencher who knows a little about what the man in the street thinks about the Lisbon treaty and his state of knowledge on its ramifications....
Lord Neill of Bladen: I have a question for the noble Lord. Where do we find in paragraphs 3.15 and 3.16 the mind of that committee being focused on the alternatives? One is enactment by primary legislation in this House and the other is by approval, which can be through a motion before the Houses. However, I may be doing the committee an injustice, as I have had only a short time to look at the two passages that...
Lord Neill of Bladen: If the noble Lord is patient enough to listen, he will see when we come to consider some of the provisions in the treaty of Lisbon, which may give rise to difficult problems of determining jurisdiction. I have in mind in particular the parts in the treaty where it is said that the European Court of Justice has jurisdiction on this frontier, but over here it has no jurisdiction. That arises in...
Lord Neill of Bladen: It is a difficult judgement as to whether one should intervene in someone else's amendment on which a lot of argument was going on or whether one should keep one's powder and shot for an amendment for which I have actually put my name to. I naturally thought should I get up and interrupt and in the end I decided not to. I may have got that wrong. Essentially I think it is important we should...
Lord Neill of Bladen: When I first came to this Chamber, experts such as the noble and learned Lord, Lord Slynn, on my left were not present. The noble Lord, Lord Williamson of Horton, was the first in, then the noble Lords, Lord Grenfell, Lord Kerr and Lord Hannay. Most of your Lordships are probably too young to remember the cricket match that was played at Lord's every year—it is now rather embarrassing to...
Lord Neill of Bladen: I have now insulted the noble Baroness. I am sorry. I will keep going. We all greatly admire the noble Baroness and the courtesy that she shows to all speakers. I will get on. This Lisbon treaty is a pretty tough area for amateurs to deal with. I should state the extent of my qualifications and then tell noble Lords about my disqualification. I was recently a member of this House's European...
Lord Neill of Bladen: My Lords, the amendment that the Minister is backing and asking this House to adopt says that the Secretary of State must issue guidance explaining the operation of the offences. That immediately tells us that there is something defective or inadequate about the section as it now stands. How can he simultaneously say that it is unnecessary to have what the noble Lord, Lord Waddington, has...
Lord Neill of Bladen: Will the noble Baroness circulate the letter a little more widely? It does not follow that some of us who have not spoken yet do not have ideas. We would like to know, for example, what was said by the learned professor, to whom reference has been made.
Lord Neill of Bladen: My Lords, I made a point in Committee which the noble Lord, Lord Borrie, has not addressed. As I understand it, the Bill intermingles the concepts of criminal and civil law in a virtually inextricable way. Clause 38(1) states: "The provision which may be made under this section is provision to confer on a regulator the power by notice to impose a fixed monetary penalty on a person in relation...
Lord Neill of Bladen: My Lords, I have a problem with Amendment No. 4, although no doubt it is my own folly in misunderstanding it. A clear distinction is drawn between subsections (1) and (2) of Clause 9. Subsection (2) says: "LBRO must give advice or make proposals to a Minister... on the matters referred to in subsection (1) if requested to do so by that Minister". So it must follow—and it would be the...
Lord Neill of Bladen: My Lords, that is still a little puzzling because it involves the LBRO going through White Papers and so forth to pick up anything where a contribution might be needed. If that is what is intended it would be nice if the Minister could spell that out.
Lord Neill of Bladen: My Lords, before the noble Lord sits down, perhaps he will respond to this problem. I think he stated that this provision does not deal with the whole law of self-defence but just clarifies a part of it. That sounds a little like the curate's egg: there is a bad bit, which you try to purify. It is not possible just to pick part of a wide doctrine by way of clarification.
Lord Neill of Bladen: My Lords, this time I very much support what the noble Lord said. I shall make four points. If the clause is meant to be a clarification and a teaching clause, it does a pretty bad job. I know that people never like to have their drafting criticised—personally, I hate it. Saying that one has no pride of authorship is not an honest statement. However, why does the clause not say what the...
Lord Neill of Bladen: My Lords, I shall make two points quite simply on this amendment. First, it treats quite separately the Section 3 defence. We are off into a statutory provision in a 1967 Act which dealt with the use of force in achieving an arrest or preventing crime, and simplifying the language. They were the two main target areas. It has already been held in case law that the accused may take advantage...
Lord Neill of Bladen: My Lords, I question the appropriateness of this clause. A later amendment, to which the noble Lord, Lord Thomas of Gresford, has, among others, put his name, proposes that the clause should simply be taken out. If I may just for a moment forget the noble Earl's amendment, to which I shall come in a second, my underlying point is that the Government are taking a bit of the common law and...
Lord Neill of Bladen: My Lords, I declare an interest as a barrister. The Bar is opposed to the proposal and the chairman has written to a number of your Lordships. I also declare an interest having once occupied the role of chairman of the Bar Council, so noble Lords can apply or discount what I am about to say. I stress that noble Lords have covered the ground. Without the invidious nature of picking out one of...
Lord Neill of Bladen: My Lords, perhaps I may add just a note to what has been said. I was very moved by the contribution of the noble Baroness, Lady Stern, and the story that she told of the two sisters, and by the reference of the right reverend Prelate to the lack of love. Rehabilitation and help for children should be the dominant features of any measures that we introduce. The degree to which children are...
