[CCWG-ACCT] The Economist | A virtual turf war: The scramble for .africa

[parminder]

On Sunday 19 June 2016 10:56 AM, parminder wrote:
>
>
> On Sunday 19 June 2016 04:13 AM, Paul Rosenzweig wrote:
>>
>> The Economist | A virtual turf war: The scramble for .africa
>> http://www.economist.com/news/middle-east-and-africa/21700661-lawyers-california-are-denying-africans-their-own-domain-scramble?frsc=dg%7Cd
>>
>
> Not that this fact is being discovered now, but it still is the
> simplest and clearest proof that US jurisdiction over ICANN's policy
> processes and decisions is absolutely untenable. Either the US makes a
> special legal provision unilaterally foregoing judicial, legislative
> and executive jurisdiction over ICANN policy functions, or the normal
> route of ICANN's incorporation under international law is taken,
> making ICANN an international organisation under international law,
> and protected from US jurisdiction under a host country agreement.

While the democratic logic of this should be self-evident, that the
global public cannot be made subject to laws and judicial processes that
it took no part in shaping (I call it 'no legislation without
representation') let me still explain further the inherent risk in this
specific kind of situation. Were it the issue of a US state, say,
Arizona, and .Arizona, was in similar dispute, a US court will be
*primarily* concerned with the larger public/ community interest
involved, and pay particular attention to what the Economist describes
as "regional names that are, in a sense, a virtual commons", as it
weighs that claim against the procedural fairness demands of US contract
law, non profit incorporation law, and so on. However, if the 'region'
and the 'public' involved is non US, as in this case, the attention to
the technicalities of the latter aspects of US laws vis a vis the wider
' (non US) public interest and claim' can easily be expected to be very
different.  And this is absolutely wrong, and unacceptable.

parminder


>
> parminder
>>
>> Paul Rosenzweig
>>
>>
>>
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>

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