1,259 research outputs found
Lukasz Gruszczynski , Wouter Werner, Deference in International Courts and Tribunals, 2014
No full textFaeli Adrien. Lukasz Gruszczynski , Wouter Werner, Deference in International Courts and Tribunals, 2014. In: Revue Québécoise de droit international, volume 28-1, 2015. pp. 313-320
Lukasz Gruszczynski , Wouter Werner, Deference in International Courts and Tribunals, 2014
No full textFaeli Adrien. Lukasz Gruszczynski , Wouter Werner, Deference in International Courts and Tribunals, 2014. In: Revue Québécoise de droit international, volume 28-1, 2015. pp. 313-320
Book review: Lukasz Gruszczynski, Wouter Werner (eds.), Deference in International Courts and Tribunals: Standard of Review and Margin of Appreciation, Oxford University Press, Oxford: 2014
No full textReview of a book: Lukasz Gruszczynski, Wouter Werner (eds.), Deference in International Courts and Tribunals: Standard of Review and Margin of Appreciation, Oxford University Press, Oxford: 201
Digging through the dirt: a general method for abstract discrete state estimation with limited prior knowledge
No full textAutonomous robots are often successfully deployed in controlled environments. Operation in uncontrolled situations remains challenging; it is hypothesized that the detection of abstract discrete states (ADS) can improve operation in these circumstances. ADS are high-level system states that are not directly detectable and influence system dynamics. An example of a typical ADS problem that is used in this thesis is that of a wheeled robot driving through puddles of mud that, when entered, alters the velocity of the robot. When the robot is in such a puddle, it is in an ADS 'mud', and when it is not, it is in an ADS 'free'. ADS can be indirectly inferred through the analysis of lower-level data such as the velocity of the robot. The goal of this thesis is to design a general abstract discrete state estimator (ADSE) operating with limited prior knowledge. An ADSE is a hierarchical system for detecting changes in ADS. The ADSE should be general; applicable to multiple ADSE problems. The ADSE should further operate under limited prior knowledge: only assuming that the amount of ADS and the ADS that describes the regular operation are known. The basis for the ADSE designed in this thesis is a Gaussian hidden Markov model (GHMM), a hidden Markov model enhanced with Gaussian emissions. Randomly generated experiments are done on a simple but general ADSE problem. Two unsupervised learning methods derived from Expectation Maximization are evaluated, namely Baum-Welch (BW) and forward extraction (FWE). FWE is introduced in this thesis and is a simpler implementation of Viterbi extraction, leveraging assumptions of ADSE to in theory gain computational efficiency. We found that both BW and FWE exhibit superior performance compared to a likelihood-based baseline estimator when the maximum score of the learning curve is considered. When the final score is considered, in some cases, FWE displays a deteriorating learning curve, resulting in worse final scores compared to the baseline. Furthermore, it was found that the lower the overlap coefficient (therefore the less similar the ADS), the higher the maximum reached score. It was further shown that BW exhibits better convergence than FWE to the true model parameters. Besides this, FWE obtained comparable or in some cases even superior scores compared to BW. In general, from the results, the diversity of the experiments conducted, and the assumptions made we can conclude that the GHMM can be a general method for an ADSE with limited prior knowledge. To quantify the suitability of the GHMM for ADSE, further research should include the evaluation of different ADSE methods on the same problem. There exists a tradeoff between the lower computational cost FWE and the more stable but more computationally intensive BW learning. Therefore, future research can include a combination of these methods. Other extensions include extending the GHMM to a Gaussian mixture hidden Markov model to allow for the modeling of more complex distributions, or the application to multiple states or a changing environment.https://github.com/Wouter-deBoer/adseMechanical Engineering | Vehicle Engineering | Cognitive Robotic
'It Could Probably Just as Well be Otherwise': Legal Imageries of Cyberwar
No full textOne of the core insights of Musil’s The Man Without Qualities is that there must be ‘a sense of possibility’. This chapter analyzes debates on the law applicable to cyberwar, as debates emanating from a sense of possibility, which translates into imageries of the way cyberwar might, could, or ought to happen, i.e. how possible future realities are construed. The analysis is limited to the Tallinn Manual on the International Law Applicable to Cyber Warfare. The basic point of much legal analysis is to make sense of new phenomena in terms of pre-existing legal rules, or, to make the unfamiliar, familiar. The creation of these legal imageries is contrasted with non-legal imageries of cyberwar, as found in military and security studies. The purpose of this exercise is to carve out more clearly what is particular about the way in which international lawyers have imagined the future in this domain
Populism and International Law: What Backlash and Which Rubicon?
No full textThis chapter introduces the theme of the volume, populism and international law, as well as its chapters. It does so by first discussing the Dutch political reality with its increasingly populist tendencies that was on the minds of the Editors when deciding to devote a volume to this theme. Subsequently, it explores briefly the many faces of populism and the different manifestations of the relationship between populism and international law. Rather than taking the so-called populist backlash against globalisation, international law and governance, at face value, this volume aims to dig deeper beyond mere ‘backlash’ rhetoric and wonders ‘what backlash are we talking about, really?’ While populism is contextual and contingent on the society in which it rises and its relationship with international law and institutions thus has differed likewise, this chapter’s historical reflections assist in our examination of what we find so dangerous about populism and problematic in its relationship with international law. It concludes by introducing the chapters individually and to some degree in relation to each other.</p
Towards a legal methodology of globalization
No full textAccording to the German sociologist and philosopher Niklas Luhmann, globalization is characterized by a shift from territorial borders to functional boundaries.1 Important issue areas2 such as the market, environment, or human rights, have left territorial boundaries behind. Thus, the state has become unable to strike the balance between different values and interests associated with different issue areas. However, on the global scale, no mechanism is in place to substitute for this role of the territorial state.3 In a “club model”, different functionally defined “issue areas” could be separated in a way that the different professional “cells” administering the systems were not connected with each other.4 With the expansion of the narrow schemes to cover more and more ground, however, their self-sufficiency and lack of contact over both territorial and functional borders are becoming untenable
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