[governance] Another Immovable Legal Object Meeting An Irresistable Internet Force (this time it ain't Taipei...

[Paul Lehto]

Anything that is an "irresistible Internet Force" in fact is something
that is thought to be, or claimed to be, above the law, or immune to
the Rule of Law.

The Rule of Law refers to the priority or primacy of the laws made by
actions of freely elected legislatures over everything else that is
"against the law", so long as those democratically adopted laws are
not unconstitutional, and don't violate universal human rights.

One may argue that a law is unconstitutional and therefore void, or
violates human rights and therefore void, but one may not argue, as
has been heard on this list, that a law or laws are inapplicable
because "the internet is different" or things like that.

If the internet is "different" specifically in the sense of the
application of law, then the speaker is claiming that all or part of
the internet is above the Rule of Law.   (For clarity:  one can say
that a law is invalidly applied because it is being applied outside
its jurisdiction.  As applied to the internet, this is not an
assertion that the Internet is above the rule of law Generally, only
that the specific law in question doesn't apply.  The two should not
be confused.)

The discussion here, as well as specific provisions I've cited in CIRA
policies in the past, occasionally rises to the level of express
claims that the internet or some part of it is "above the law" by
saying that laws are inapplicable (for example) to the procedures for
arbitrations in CIRA, regardless of whether those laws are foreign or
domestic.

Governments MUST not do unconstitutional things, and MUST not violate
human rights.  Beyond that, for POLICY reasons they OUGHT not to
intervene in some areas, but where those non-intervention lines are
drawn is a constantly debated and regularly changing political and
historical process.  But if the law DOES intervene, all must follow
the law, per the Rule of Law itself.

The internet is [NOT!] different **when it comes to the law,** no
matter how many times anybody says it is.
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