[CCWG-Accountability] Related work on ICANN's Public Interest

[Malcolm Hutty]

On 2014-12-17 21:20, Eric Brunner-Williams wrote:
> On 12/17/14 8:53 AM, Malcolm Hutty wrote:
>> Certainly I would regard it as being in the public interest that ICANN
>> should discharge its functions properly, and in accordance with 
>> generally
>> accepted principles of law.
> 
> Dear Malcolm,
> 
> What "generally accepted principles of law" do you suggest apply to
> the management of protocol parameters?

[snip: other similar questions, that ultimately lead to:]

> 
> My point being that when the IANA Functions are as narrowly construed
> as we can sensibly make them, "public interest" and "generally
> accepted principles of law" are difficult to find points of
> association, let alone concordance.

Eric,

I'm a bit surprised by the tone of your reply, which appears to signal a
disagreement between us that I don't recognise in the argument itself.

The main thrust of my intervention was to say that we should not make 
broad
statements about the public interest and "generally accepted principles
of international law" that could be construed to enlarge ICANN's role.

Your intervention seems to be aligned with this.

I am not a PIL expert, so I cannot guess what principles of PIL may be
applicable to ICANN. There certainly are broad principles that I do
believe are applicable to ICANN (including transparency, a rules-based 
approach,
bottom-up multi-stakeholder policy-making, impartiality of treatment
under the rules etc); some of these may be found in PIL too, or maybe 
not,
I don't know.

I do believe ICANN should apply only aspects of PIL as relevant
to its existing mission, rather than reshaping its mission to pursue
the multifarious goals of international public policy. On this may
I take it we are agreed?

Malcolm

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             Malcolm Hutty | tel: +44 20 7645 3523
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