This article examines recent and significant developments about rights-based scrutiny and interpretation of legislation at the national level of government. The developments canvassed here cover parliamentary scrutiny of laws against international human rights standards, the High Court's first major consideration of a statutory human rights law, and the impact of legal globalisation upon norms of statutory interpretation. Each of these developments provides new opportunities for courts to explore how they and the other branches of government engage with foreign and international law ('global law') in law-making and statutory interpretation affecting human rights.