[Acct-Legal] Fwd: Request for advice on Swiss law

Mon May 11 23:22:33 UTC 2015

Leon and CCWG Colleagues,

Thank you for the note and request.  If you recall, Sidley previously looked briefly at Swiss non-profit law as part of our preliminary response to CCWG initial questions.  See the response to Question No. 3, and specifically pages 8-9 of our memo to you dated March 27, 2005, a copy of which is attached for your convenience.

In the memo, we state that Swiss NGOs are typically established as nonprofit associations.  Such associations have members, which must be organized in some legally cognizable form.  In addition, for Swiss International NGOs, the organization must have individual members of different nationalities or private entities governed by different national laws.

Although the focus of our initial response was not directed primarily to the legal status of “members” in a Swiss nonprofit -- and what would be required to make an SO or AC a “legally cognizable form” -- we suspect that we would have the same issue in Switzerland as we have in California.

Of course, if you would like us to confirm with our colleagues in Switzerland what legal status is required of a “member” under Swiss law, we can ask that question.  We will await further instruction.

Cheers,
Josh

JOSHUA HOFHEIMER
Sidley Austin LLP
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jhofheimer at sidley.com<mailto:jhofheimer at sidley.com>
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From: ccwg-accountability5-bounces at icann.org [mailto:ccwg-accountability5-bounces at icann.org] On Behalf Of León Felipe Sánchez Ambía
Sent: Monday, May 11, 2015 3:16 PM
To: ccwg-accountability5 at icann.org
Cc: Steve DelBianco; Cheryl Langdon-Orr
Subject: [Acct-Legal] Fwd: Request for advice on Swiss law

Resending this on behalf of Mathieu Weill.

Best regards,

León

Inicio del mensaje reenviado:

De: Mathieu Weill <mathieu.weill at afnic.fr<mailto:mathieu.weill at afnic.fr>>
Asunto: Re: Request for advice on Swiss law
Fecha: 11 de mayo de 2015 16:49:28 GMT-5
Para: León Felipe Sánchez Ambía <leonfelipe at sanchez.mx<mailto:leonfelipe at sanchez.mx>>, ccwg-accountability5 at icann.org<mailto:ccwg-accountability5 at icann.org>
Cc: Thomas Rickert <rickert at anwaelte.de<mailto:rickert at anwaelte.de>>, Steve DelBianco <sdelbianco at netchoice.org<mailto:sdelbianco at netchoice.org>>, Cheryl Langdon-Orr <langdonorr at gmail.com<mailto:langdonorr at gmail.com>>, Jordan Carter <jordan at internetnz.net.nz<mailto:jordan at internetnz.net.nz>>, "Burr, Becky" <Becky.Burr at neustar.biz<mailto:Becky.Burr at neustar.biz>>
Responder a: Mathieu.Weill at afnic.fr<mailto:Mathieu.Weill at afnic.fr>

Dear Counsel and colleagues,

Maybe to focus the question a bit and avoid too large a research in a first step, the key assumption we would like to test is whether Swiss law would enable the SOs and ACs to act with all powers described in our report WITHOUT the need to establish a legal entity associated with the SO or AC.

Thank you for your help

Mathieu
Le 11/05/2015 23:42, León Felipe Sánchez Ambía a écrit :
Dear Counsel,

A comment has been made in the forum which states:

In some countries (in particular in Switzerland), non-profit associations

are, by law, accountable to their membership, in the sense that the

membership has full powers to amend the bylaws (called statues in

Switzerland), elect and revoke the Board, approve and review the budget,

etc.  See articles 60 ff. of the Swiss Civil Code at:

  https://www.admin.ch/opc/en/classified-compilation/19070042/index.html<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__www.admin.ch_opc_en_classified-2Dcompilation_19070042_index.html&d=AwMFaQ&c=Od00qP2XTg0tXf_H69-T2w&r=PyftdYkqjEDMIx5o_kyQ1bCTTkOV655ea67oiCGUI9M&m=lVD1ewGXc0pI0VmyoIob-CX4u0GrILJzUwmj5CGyLrs&s=olA8zNkpL5t3lJBwq1KVqj4zPEZkxdGil9usaEmuL18&e=>

If we accept the principle that accountability is ensured by the members,

then I don't understand why the members of ICANN should not have full powers

to amend the bylaws, set the budget, etc.
We would like to test the accuracy of this comment. To get the complete picture, you can find the full comment here:

http://forum.icann.org/lists/comments-ccwg-accountability-draft-proposal-04may15/msg00000.html<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__forum.icann.org_lists_comments-2Dccwg-2Daccountability-2Ddraft-2Dproposal-2D04may15_msg00000.html&d=AwMFaQ&c=Od00qP2XTg0tXf_H69-T2w&r=PyftdYkqjEDMIx5o_kyQ1bCTTkOV655ea67oiCGUI9M&m=lVD1ewGXc0pI0VmyoIob-CX4u0GrILJzUwmj5CGyLrs&s=rw-R2-eazPUXLpqZEuOZgEx_Q7mFtc311lBwP_zGX0g&e=>

This is not urgent so I please ask you kindly to address the outstanding questions identified before addressing this comment.

Best regards,

León

--

*****************************

Mathieu WEILL

AFNIC - directeur général

Tél: +33 1 39 30 83 06

mathieu.weill at afnic.fr<mailto:mathieu.weill at afnic.fr>

Twitter : @mathieuweill

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