[Ws2-jurisdiction] ISSUE: In rem Jurisdiction over ccTLDs

[Mueller, Milton L]

> -----Original Message-----
>
> > please excuse my ignorance, but have domain names not be seized as
> "assets" or "property" in the US under the application of domestic law?

No, they haven't. Not if you are talking about ccTLDs. If you can't name an example of which ccTLD to whom this happened, it's quite possible that such an example does not exist.

> > Wikipedia info is here:
> > https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_In_Our_Sites

These were second-level domains registered under .com, a US-based registry. This may be the third or fourth time you've failed to distinguish between 2LDs and TLDs, Parminder, and have had to be corrected. If a registry (i.e., .COM) is a business in US jurisdiction, yes, US law applies to it. But this has nothing to do with ICANN's jurisdiction and nothing we do to or with ICANN will change it. 

> > If a second level domain is subject to potential seizure, why not a TLD?

I guess you didn’t actually read the court case about .IR, did you? Or our wonderful ;-) law review article about it. 
http://www.stlr.org/download/volumes/volume18/muellerBadiei.pdf 

I'd encourage you to do so, the answer to this question lies therein. 

Dr. Milton L Mueller
Professor, School of Public Policy
Georgia Institute of Technology
Internet Governance Project 
http://internetgovernance.org/