International law, United Nations diplomats like to say, must be obeyed. Even without a treaty, they continue, decisionmakers should bow to the prevailing mores of their surroundings.

Fine. They live and work in New York, which has banned smoking. How about complying with that local more? A tad inconvenient, insists Jacques. But, we are internationals, adds Hans.

They smoked right through Kofi Anan’s 2003 attempt to ban smoking in the U.N. building and they expect to defy the latest attempt. The General Assembly recently passed a measure banning smoking throughout the building, including, gasp, in offices and cafes.

As a matter of personal liberty, I hope the resistance succeeds.

At any rate, U.N. diplomats should drop the pretense of the objectivity of international law. They, and the nations they represent, obey the dictates they like and call them law and disregard the others.Smoking is simply a small and recent example.

It is only the United States and the remnants of the Anglo-Sphere with enough spirit or spine to defy the “international consensus” (which is really no more than the collected wisdom of the unelected representatives of kleptocrat bureaucracies) that are criticized for not living up to it.

All of this is worth bearing in mind when we receive another lecture about the “illegality” of the Iraq war.