Determining hierarchy between conflicting treaties: are there vertical rules in the horizontal system?

Treaties are contractual instruments that may provide special rules of priority in case they conflict with other treaties. When a treaty does not provide such rules, however, priority is determined by the rules of the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties (VCLT) and/or general principles of law. This article argues that both the VCLT and general principles of law do not provide an adequate solution to treaty conflicts. It suggests that the solution to treaty conflicts rests in a value-oriented reading of international law and the norms incorporated in treaties. Norms represent values and values represent interests or benefits for which international society requires protection. Conflicts of treaty norms are, therefore, conflicts of values that courts and dispute settlement bodies resolve by ordering a hierarchy of competing interests and protecting the most important interests in a given context

Reducing Audible Spectral Discontinuities

In this paper, a common problem in diphone synthesis is discussed, viz., the occurrence of audible discontinuities at diphone boundaries. Informal observations show that spectral mismatch is most likely the cause of this phenomenon.We first set out to find an objective spectral measure for discontinuity. To this end, several spectral distance measures are related to the results of a listening experiment. Then, we studied the feasibility of extending the diphone database with context-sensitive diphones to reduce the occurrence of audible discontinuities. The number of additional diphones is limited by clustering consonant contexts that have a similar effect on the surrounding vowels on the basis of the best performing distance measure. A listening experiment has shown that the addition of these context-sensitive diphones significantly reduces the amount of audible discontinuities

On the Computation of the Kullback-Leibler Measure for Spectral Distances

Efficient algorithms for the exact and approximate computation of the symmetrical Kullback-Leibler (1998) measure for spectral distances are presented for linear predictive coding (LPC) spectra. A interpretation of this measure is given in terms of the poles of the spectra. The performances of the algorithms in terms of accuracy and computational complexity are assessed for the application of computing concatenation costs in unit-selection-based speech synthesis. With the same complexity and storage requirements, the exact method is superior in terms of accuracy

Four-point functions of all-different-weight chiral primary operators in the supergravity approximation

Recently a Mellin-space formula was conjectured for the form of correlation functions of $1/2$ BPS operators in planar $\mathcal{N}=4$ SYM in the strong 't Hooft coupling limit. In this work we report on the computation of two previously unknown four-point functions of operators with weights $\langle 2345 \rangle$ and $\langle 3456\rangle$, from the effective type-IIB supergravity action using AdS/CFT. These correlators are novel: they are the first correlators with all-different weights and in particular $\langle 3456\rangle$ is the first next-next-next-to-extremal correlator to ever have been computed. We also present simplifications of the known algorithm, without which these computations could not have been executed without considerable computer power. The main simplifications we found are present in the computation of the exchange Lagrangian and in the computation of $a$ tensors. After bringing our results in the appropriate form we successfully corroborate the recently conjectured formula.Comment: 20+23 pages, 3 figures; v2: published versio

Quantum Spectral Curve for the eta-deformed AdS_5xS^5 superstring

The spectral problem for the ${\rm AdS}_5\times {\rm S}^5$ superstring and its dual planar maximally supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory can be efficiently solved through a set of functional equations known as the quantum spectral curve. We discuss how the same concepts apply to the $\eta$-deformed ${\rm AdS}_5\times {\rm S}^5$ superstring, an integrable deformation of the ${\rm AdS}_5\times {\rm S}^5$ superstring with quantum group symmetry. This model can be viewed as a trigonometric version of the ${\rm AdS}_5\times {\rm S}^5$ superstring, like the relation between the XXZ and XXX spin chains, or the sausage and the ${\rm S}^2$ sigma models for instance. We derive the quantum spectral curve for the $\eta$-deformed string by reformulating the corresponding ground-state thermodynamic Bethe ansatz equations as an analytic $Y$ system, and map this to an analytic $T$ system which upon suitable gauge fixing leads to a $\mathbf{P} \mu$ system -- the quantum spectral curve. We then discuss constraints on the asymptotics of this system to single out particular excited states. At the spectral level the $\eta$-deformed string and its quantum spectral curve interpolate between the ${\rm AdS}_5\times {\rm S}^5$ superstring and a superstring on "mirror" ${\rm AdS}_5\times {\rm S}^5$, reflecting a more general relationship between the spectral and thermodynamic data of the $\eta$-deformed string. In particular, the spectral problem of the mirror ${\rm AdS}_5\times {\rm S}^5$ string, and the thermodynamics of the undeformed ${\rm AdS}_5\times {\rm S}^5$ string, are described by a second rational limit of our trigonometric quantum spectral curve, distinct from the regular undeformed limit.Comment: 32+37 pages; 6 figures. v2: added reference

Four-point functions of 1/2-BPS operators of any weights in the supergravity approximation

We present the computation of all the correlators of 1/2-BPS operators in $\mathcal{N} = 4$ SYM with weights up to 8 as well as some very high-weight correlation functions from the effective supergravity action. The computation is done by implementing the recently developed simplified algorithm in combination with the harmonic polynomial formalism. We provide a database of these results attached to this publication and additionally check for almost all of the functions in this database that they agree with the conjecture on their Mellin-space form.Comment: 6 pages, database included; v2: database extended, appendix adde

Towards 4-point correlation functions of any 1/2-BPS operators from supergravity

The quartic effective action for Kaluza-Klein modes that arises upon compactification of type IIB supergravity on the five-sphere S^5 is a starting point for computing the four-point correlation functions of arbitrary weight 1/2-BPS operators in N=4 super Yang-Mills theory in the supergravity approximation. The apparent structure of this action is rather involved, in particular it contains quartic terms with four derivatives which cannot be removed by field redefinitions. By exhibiting intricate identities between certain integrals involving spherical harmonics of S^5 we show that the net contribution of these four-derivative terms to the effective action vanishes. Our result is in agreement with and provides further support to the recent conjecture on the Mellin space representation of the four-point correlation function of any 1/2-BPS operators in the supergravity approximation.Comment: 12 page

The Purpose of International Agreements and their Direct Effect : Polydor

Peer reviewe

Notes on the Ideology of International Organizations Law : The International Organization for Migration, State-making, and the Market for Migration

This article discusses the law and practice of the International Organization for Migration (IOM), a little-known but important international organization. The article aims to illuminate what it is the IOM does; how it influences its member state practices while simultaneously working on member state assignments; and how this affects the dominant theory underpinning the law of international organizations, i.e., the theory of functionalism. The article concludes that the IOM takes functionalist thought to extremes, and in doing so makes visible the latter’s ideological nature.Peer reviewe

The International Responsibility of NATO and Its Personnel during Military Operations

Book review: Nauta, David: The International Responsibility of NATO and Its Personnel during Military Operations. Leiden: Martinus Nijhoff, 2018, 194 pp, ISBN 9789004354616Non peer reviewe