For example, Europe is more willing than the US to sacrifice aspects of sovereign control, giving an important role in protecting human rights to international organizations and even to international courts. The US, compared to European states, is more protective of a broad and almost absolute notion of state sovereignty and is more willing to act unilaterally. But both the US and Europe are party to many important treaties.

Consent is a key principle in international law. In legal principle (as compared to political fact), states can’t be coerced into membership to treaties. They freely choose to take on the obligations a treaty imposes on them. Human rights treaties limit sovereignty, but these treaties are created through an exercise of that same sovereignty. States use their power to set limits on themselves, consenting to rules that limit their freedom of policy-making for the sake of protecting the human dignity of their citizens.