[governance] U.N. takeover of the Internet must be stopped, U.S. warns

[Koven Ronald]

Dear Milton --


A host country agreement gives the beneficiary party at least a measure of extraterritoriality. I assume that the point of the suggestion is to remove ICANN from US legal jurisdiction and therefore accomplish the goal of turning it into an entity that is not subject to US government oversight, without becoming a member agency of the UN system, subject to control by member states. 


But each such agreement is sui generis, and if exceptions were required for particular laws like anti-trust that would be feasible, I'm not sure that would make a lot of sense in the case of anti-trust. ICANN performs services analagous to those of a licensing agency or a public utility, whose monopolistic status is accepted because of its very nature as a sole service provider.


Anyway, the suggestion is a clever possible way around the dichotomy we have so far been confronted with between international or US national control and/or oversight.


To date, I believe host country agreements have been made only with international agencies. Making one with a body like ICANN would break new legal ground.


Another legal analogy that might be worth exploring is the international legal status of the International Committee of the Red Cross.


Bests, Rony Koven



-----Original Message-----
From: Milton L Mueller <mueller at syr.edu>
To: governance <governance at lists.igcaucus.org>
Sent: Fri, Jun 1, 2012 8:54 pm
Subject: RE: [governance] U.N. takeover of the Internet must be stopped, U.S. warns



Can someone explain to me what a "host country agreement" accomplishes for Internet users and service operators?
 
My vague understanding of it is that from a legal perspective, such agreements can actually immunize the organization from various forms of legal accountability which, imho, is not something we want to do. For example, ICANN _should_ be subject to antitrust law; it _should_  be subject to the membership requirements of California public benefit law (and stop pretending that it doesn't have members).
 
And, those of you who want this to happen because California law is too remote and parochial for, say a villager in Zimbabwe, please explain to me how a host country agreement in Geneva is any more accessible to a villager in Zimbabw? The government of Zimbabwe, perhaps, but the people there?
 
This could just be my own ignorance of a what a host country agreement is, but please, let's make the rights and benefits it affords Netizens the standard here, not conformity to past intergovernmental patterns.
--MM
 




From:governance-request at lists.igcaucus.org [governance-request at lists.igcaucus.org] on behalf of William Drake [william.drake at uzh.ch]
Sent: Friday, June 01, 2012 11:07 AM
To: governance at lists.igcaucus.org
Subject: Re: [governance] U.N. takeover of the Internet must be stopped, U.S. warns

 

On Jun 1, 2012, at 2:47 PM, Avri Doria wrote:




I personally beleive, and have believed for a long time, that it should have a host country agreement with an appropriate host country.
 

Me too, and we are waiting patiently here in Geneva.   But on the off chance that proves a tough sell in certain quarters, how about something more incremental: independent of the USG, with a host country agreement, in the US?  There's a few international organizations there that have these already…

 

Bill

 



 
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