[IOT] Replacement of Procedures Officer

[Malcolm Hutty]

Dear all,

I think Elizabeth's suggestion of a more clearly specified Consolidation
Arbitrator deserves consideration. At first blush, it appeals to me, and
I look forward to hearing other's thoughts on the idea.

There is, however, one wrinkle in the ICDR approach I would like to
dispose of.

> 1.         At the request of a party, the Administrator may appoint a
> consolidation arbitrator, who will have the power to consolidate two or
> more arbitrations pending under these Rules, or these and other
> arbitration rules administered by the AAA or ICDR, into a single
> arbitration where:

[...]

> b.         all of the claims and counterclaims in the arbitrations are
> made under the same arbitration agreement; or
If I understand the ICDR process correctly, the entire IRP system is
considered a single arbitration agreement, from their perspective.

I do not think the fact that multiple claims against ICANN are brought
as IRP cases sufficient in itself to justify consolidating them.
Something more needs to be shown. But with that corrected, I think this
suggestion has legs.


Separately, I suppose we may have to accept an IRP Panelist acting as
the consolidation arbitrator, if we go down this route.

It did occur to me that if we could find a genuinely disinterested
community member with a deep understanding of the matter at hand, we
might achieve the greater efficiency more consolidations without the
unfairness of excess consolidation. I wondered whether the Chairs of the
gNSO, ccNSO and ASO might, acting together, appoint a consolidation
arbitrator in a particular case? That might result in someone with a
deeper understanding of the issues doing it. (perhaps this could only
occur with ICANN's consent that they do so, or subject to other
conditions, and perhaps as a supplementary rather than exclusive
alternative to a Panelist acting in that role).

Perhaps, though, this is asking too much of them. I look forward to
hearing whether anyone likes this idea enough to develop it into
something workable.


-- 
            Malcolm Hutty | tel: +44 20 7645 3523
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