Compendium of Standards, Good Practices and Recommendations In other states, however, treaties concluded by the executive do not automatically become part of the law of the land and, therefore, do not have effect domestically and may not be invoked before national courts. While the state is bound by international law, specific national legislation needs to be in enacted if a change in rights and duties under domestic law is required.59 Some states have passed special legislation to give international human rights obligations a particular domestic legal status, such as by placing a duty on the courts to interpret legislation in light of these commitments, without altering other national laws, which may potentially conflict with international obligations undertaken by a state. However, a state cannot invoke the provisions of its internal law as justification for its failure to perform a treaty.60 In many states, regardless of whether international treaties have a privileged status, domestic constitutional provisions overlap with the content of these human rights obligations.61 Sometimes, human rights treaty provisions are incorporated into constitutional law by reference.62 Irrespective of these differences, it is relatively common for either parliamentary or other constitutional bodies to vet draft legislation with reference to human rights standards.63 Even in the absence of specific constitutional provisions or other legislation, domestic courts are nevertheless able to refer to international human rights standards. For example, it is presumed that courts will interpret domestic law consistently with international law obligations whenever possible, authorities can take human rights treaties into account when exercising administrative discretion, human right treaties can influence the development of common law, and the conclusion of human rights treaties can provide indications of public policy.64 International compliance mechanisms International human rights treaties offer a variety of means to protect rights and provide remedies for violations.65 These include the establishment of an expert committee to monitor the implementation of the treaty (or the establishment of a court to decide individual cases), the submission of regular reports by states on their compliance with the treaty, references by other states to the expert committee and petitions by individuals. 59 See, for example: Parlement Belge (1880) 5 PD 197. 60 See, for example: The United Kingdom Human Rights Act 1998 and Article 27 of the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties (1969). 61 See, for example: Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany, 8 May 1949, Arts. 1-19. 62 Constitution of Bosnia and Herzegovina, 14 December 1995, Art II(2). 63 See, for example: Constitution of Finland, 11 June 1999, s. 74. 64 See: Andrew Byrnes and Catherine Renshaw, “Within the State”, in Daniel Moeckli, Sangeeta Shah and Sandesh Sivakumaran (eds.), International Human Right Law (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 3rd edition, 2018) pp. 482–499, p. 489. 65 Dinah Shelton, Remedies in International Human Rights Law (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 3rd edition, 2016). 49