<div dir="ltr"><div>Dear Andrew</div><div>I fully agree with you.</div><div>I just wanted to demonstrate the difficulties of defining " Global Public Interest" and using that as a tool to unilatelarry reject a given recommendation based on such multidimentional subjerct..</div><div>The criteria to trigger that a given Rec. or a given subject is or is not compatible with something that can not be defined does also creating another problem</div><div>I did also mentioned that the matter /issue is so comnplex that one can not reply on a proposed text by legal adviser since there is a general disagreement on any definition.</div><div>Regards</div><div>Kavouss </div></div><div class="gmail_extra"><br><div class="gmail_quote">2015-12-27 19:58 GMT+01:00 Andrew Sullivan <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:ajs@anvilwalrusden.com" target="_blank">ajs@anvilwalrusden.com</a>></span>:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">Hi,<br>
<br>
I'm sort of loathe to dive into this discussion, but I think there's a<br>
useful thread in here that is worth tugging on so that we can see the<br>
quality of the weave.<br>
<br>
My biggest worry about the phrase "the global public interest" is not<br>
the meaning of "global", "public", or "interest", but "the". By<br>
claiming that something is or is not in _the_ global public interest,<br>
the definite article implies that there is such an interest (or maybe,<br>
such a public); that there is exactly one; and, perhaps most<br>
interesting, that one knows what that is. Even if I were to grant (I<br>
do not, but let's say for the sake of argument) that there is a fact<br>
of the matter about the the interest of the global public, I cannot<br>
imagine how one would test a claim that something is or is not in said<br>
interest.<br>
<br>
The quest to come up with a definition of "the global public<br>
interest", therefore, is an attempt to create such a test; but it's<br>
really a dodge in a Wittgenstinean language-game. Were we to unpack<br>
any such definition that was even widely acceptable, we'd discover<br>
either that some interest (or public) would be left out, or else that<br>
some conflict inherent in the definition would be obscured. For the<br>
basic problem is that you cannot define "the global public interest"<br>
in a way that is all of universally acceptable, useful for the<br>
purposes of making tough decisions, and true. Even apparently simple<br>
and obvious cases -- "It is in the global public interest for war to<br>
end" -- turn out to be troublesome. For example, people fighting a<br>
current war are presumably doing it for some other end, so they'd only<br>
agree to that example statement with the implicit premise, "as long as<br>
my desired outcome is assured."<br>
<br>
A definition of "the global public interest" will be ever more<br>
troublesome the clearer it tries to be, because the list of specifics<br>
will start to be long. I think our experience in working on the<br>
mission statement is mighty instructive, and it is at least scoped<br>
merely to the parts of the Internet ICANN directly touches -- whatever<br>
we think those are.<br>
<br>
As a consequence, I think a claim that _x_ is [not] in "the global<br>
public interest" is really just a way of saying, "I [don't] think _x_<br>
should happen." Such a claim is part of a tussle, like the "Tussle in<br>
Cyberspace" described by Clark, Wroclawski, Sollins, and Braden (see<br>
<a href="http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=1074049" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer">http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=1074049</a>). It's a nice rhetorical<br>
move to claim that you can define the tussle away, but you can't (at<br>
least, not legitimately). I think we should be honest with ourselves<br>
that such definitional efforts will create wheels that do no work.<br>
<br>
Best regards,<br>
<br>
A<br>
<span class="HOEnZb"><font color="#888888"><br>
--<br>
Andrew Sullivan<br>
<a href="mailto:ajs@anvilwalrusden.com">ajs@anvilwalrusden.com</a><br>
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