Ard Mhacha's comment on the shrub's standing in Ireland is interesting.

I may be just projecting my own views onto my compatriots, but a possible explanation is that a belief in international institutions and the rule of international law is an important component of the founding myth of modern Ireland (disgust at the imperial powers' exclusion of the Sinn Féin delegation to the Paris Peace Conference of 1919, Dev's commitment to the League of Nations, the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty sponsored by Ireland, participation in UN operations such as the Congo and supprt for the the decolonisation of Africa, the European Court of Justice and Mary Robinson's outstanding pleadings there, the European Union as a joint rejection of war by France and Germany etc. etc.).

The Bushniks' amply-displayed contempt for both law and institutions when they're not made by and for Americans (Kyoto, the International Criminal Court etc. etc.) sets efforts to introduce the rule of law into the conduct of international relations back anywhere from fifty to a hundred years.