[CCWG-ACCT] CCWG-Accountability - Draft Comment for Public Consultation on Articles of Incorporation (AOC)

[Sam Lanfranco]

At the risk of restating the obvious in simple terms I am taking a whack 
at the issue of ICANN and the public interest (global or otherwise). 
There is no agreed upon definitive definition of the public interest. 
This is not because there are different competing definitions but 
because of the inherent nature of the notion itself. The public interest 
is not like an element (iron, copper, helium) in the periodic chart 
where there is a fine grained molecular test of whether something is in, 
or not in, the public interest. It is a concern across a broad scope of 
human existence for the impact of policies and practices carried out by 
institutions, and in some cases individuals. Does an action support, or 
counter, the public interest (i.e., can I raise chickens in my urban 
back yard)?

In ICANN, it is appropriate to have a commitment to policies and actions 
in the global public interest, without a defined definition of global 
public interest. That is why there is reference to the multistakeholder 
community through an inclusive bottom-up multistakeholder community 
process. Here is where a nuance is important. The task of that process 
is not to craft an ICANN definitive definition of the global public 
interest. The task of that process is to stand ready to be invoked 
whenever it appears that an ICANN policy or practice is not consistent 
with some element of the global public interest. The purpose of that 
process is to reach a consensus on the issue at hand, and not to perform 
a test against some gold standard benchmark of “global public interest”. 
Of course, with the passage of time, both inside ICANN and elsewhere a 
body of “case evidence” will build to assist that process.

In the case of society and justice, where there is no definitive 
definition of justice, a broad set of principles exist and on a case by 
case basis the objective is that “justice has to be seen to be done”. In 
the case of ICANN and a commitment to the global public interest, on a 
policy and practice case by case basis, the global public interest has 
to be seen to be served. To repeat, the task of the ICANN 
multistakeholder community is to remain vigilant with respect to 
policies and practices as they impact on the global public interest and 
remain as the defenders of those interests within the work of ICANN. In 
doing so it will benefit from the case evidence build up within ICANN 
and elsewhere, but its task is not to pursue a quest for a definitive 
definition of the global public interest.

  Sam Lanfranco, NPOC/CSIH

-- ------------------------------------------------ "It is a disgrace to 
be rich and honoured in an unjust state" -Confucius 
邦有道，贫且贱焉，耻也。邦无道，富且贵焉，耻也 
------------------------------------------------ Dr Sam Lanfranco (Prof 
Emeritus & Senior Scholar) Econ, York U., Toronto, Ontario, CANADA - M3J 
1P3 email: Lanfran at Yorku.ca Skype: slanfranco blog: 
http://samlanfranco.blogspot.com Phone: +1 613-476-0429 cell: +1 
416-816-2852

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