outline how human rights are incorporated into Australian domestic law
Theme: The changing understanding of the relationship between state sovereignty and human rights
Australian domestic law is effective to an extent; in other words, they are far more effective than international law. This is because domestic law are hard laws which mean that there is a definite sanction or punishment if proven to have breached a specific law. In Australia, domestic law consists of constitutional law, statute laws and common laws.
Constitutional laws are laws that deal with the power of the government in general. Statute laws are made by Parliament (legislature) and common laws are set precedent derived from a judge’s decision (judiciary). They are only binding however in lower courts.
Australia’s common law was inherited from the UK. Traditionally, common law was the primary source of protection of individual and collective rights. However, common law is now limited in how much it can protect our rights by the fact that parliament can reverse its decisions through legislation.  This was one way human rights were incorporated in Australia’s domestic law.
Another method was through the Australian Human Rights Commission Act (1968). This is the Commonwealth agency responsible for monitoring and promoting human rights protection. The Commission had responsibilities under Racial Discrimination Act (1984), the Disability Discrimination Act (1992) and the Age Discrimination Act (1996). These principles of non-discrimination is a fundamental human right and through the Australian Human Rights Commission, this is incorporated into Australia’s domestic law.
Human rights have also been incorporated into Australia through treaties and enforcing customary international law principles over the years. A number of countries have features of international law as part of their legal systems to assist in enforcing human rights. This includes Australia.
Internal agreements (treaties) are also signed by states in Australia, meaning that there is no infringement on state sovereignty, however it is expected that states fully comply with them or they can face consequences. These treaties are usually put in place to protect and enforce human rights, therefore this is another method that is used to incorporate human rights into domestic law in Australia.
One of the main issues with enforcing and protecting human rights within a country is that state sovereignty is more often than not a barrier that prevents us from incorporating human rights.