I share the view of other noble Lords and noble and learned Lords. This is pre-eminently a matter for Parliament. It has been slipped into Schedule 6 as a qualification to Section 2 powers regarding private international law. I suggest that, if one had read Section 2 by itself, one would not normally have expected it to cover crime at all, and yet this comes in as if it is automatic that it would cover it. It clearly should not.
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What is being done is quite interesting to analyse. The Explanatory Notes suggest that what is in mind is enforcing on a reciprocal basis offences that are offences under English law—non-molestation or breach of injunction in respect of harassment, that sort of thing. Those will already be offences domestically, so what is contemplated is recognising similar foreign offences automatically as part of domestic law, as I understand it. That strikes me as a very novel suggestion. Can the Minister give us any relevant examples in private international law of agreements by international treaty to create a domestic offence out of a foreign conviction? It might be in respect of something that is already an offence under domestic law, but as I understand it the idea here is to convert a foreign conviction into a domestic one. Are there any examples? One notes that the 1920 and 1933 Acts on which he relied are carefully limited to civil proceedings; likewise the Civil Jurisdiction and Judgments Act 1982, as its name says.
I will end with an inquiry. The amendment has been described as academic and so it might seem at the moment, Clause 2 having been removed. May I inquire, more out of ignorance—I am sure others know the answer—if we do not press it to a Division today, what happens if Clause 2 is restored in the other place? Surely, we ought to consider at least ensuring that the amendment succeeds in eliminating the reference to penal offences.