[governance] regulating the digital space - whose laws apply, and whose do not

[michael gurstein]

IMHO (and following Sala, Paul, Parminder et al...
 
The issue is not who/how should "regulate the Internet" but rather who/how
can regulate commerce and the flow of goods, money, people, and information
in an Internet enabled world.
 
As we are seeing on this list and in the real world the difficulties of
regulating activities in these areas both at the intra-national, national
and global levels are rapidly outrunning the capacity of existing
instrumentalities to respond. National and global instititutions are
currently going through various convoluted and ultimately futile processes
to attempt to adapt.  New institutions are, as we speak, in the process of
being developed. 
 
The role of Civil Society in this is not IMHO to argue about how existing
institutions can adapt (or not) but rather to be working towards global
institutions that reflect the basic values of civil society -- democratic
governance, accountability, transparency, and so on.
 
Mike

-----Original Message----- 
From: governance at lists.cpsr.org [mailto:governance at lists.cpsr.org] On Behalf
Of McTim
Sent: Friday, August 26, 2011 8:52 PM
To: governance at lists.cpsr.org
Subject: Re: [governance] regulating the digital space - whose laws apply,
and whose do not




On Sat, Aug 27, 2011 at 2:42 AM, Salanieta T. Tamanikaiwaimaro
<salanieta.tamanikaiwaimaro at gmail.com> wrote:


The issues are more complex than this, but this is my attempt to reduce the
debate to get to the crux of what and how to address the debate:
 
Should there be a global global governance mechanism that creates the law to
regulate all States/ multinationals etc?
 
or
 
Should there be mechanisms which allows for countries to adopt global best
practices?



This survey asks a slightly different question: 

http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2011/08/15/the_fp_survey_the_internet?
page=0,6


-- 
Cheers,

McTim
"A name indicates what we seek. An address indicates where it is. A route
indicates how we get there."  Jon Postel
 

 
 
Both in my mind already exist in parts...To a large extent this exists
through Mutilateral or Bilateral agreements between nation states and the
existence of international and regional standards. 
 
If countries are sovereign and choose to regulate as they please which is
their sovereign right to do, self determination provided that it does not
infringe what universally is agreed as "acceptable conduct". Even with Human
Rights debates and discussions/disourse there are diverse views on
jurisprudence such as the universalism vrs cultural relativism debate.
There will always be diverse views, the question is how do we come up with
clear feasible solutions.
 
We just have to build capacity locally, learn from strengths and weaknesses
of those who have developed and draw from the good, discard the bad. This is
why the IGF and the multistakeholder process is relevant to developing
countries.
 
Sala


On Fri, Aug 26, 2011 at 3:13 PM, Roland Perry
<roland at internetpolicyagency.com> wrote:


In message <4E5795FF.5080606 at digsys.bg>, at 15:47:59 on Fri, 26 Aug 2011,
Daniel Kalchev <daniel at digsys.bg> writes 


According to the 'government rule' opinion, that country's government should
be able to sue Google and/or the "Canadian" drug sellers for breaching their
national laws. Has this ever happened? There are lots of things, that
Internet makes accessible to anyone, including people whose local government
has decided they are not entitled to it.
What typically happens is it is the consumer that gets beaten for not
assisting the law.



Pharmaceuticals are an interesting case because what's normally being
regulated is the ability to prescribe them, not the consumption.

Therefore, there are some pharmaceuticals which are available "over the
counter" in some countries, but a Doctor's prescription is required in other
countries. Similarly there are certain pharmaceuticals which are available
by Doctor's prescription in some countries, but only if you are on a
clinical trial in other countries (where the regulator has not yet
determined that they are safe to use).

If the medical community, which is relatively joined-up worldwide, has not
been able to harmonise these things yet, I'm not sure that those of us in
the Internet Governance space can do much to help.
-- 
Roland Perry 

____________________________________________________________
You received this message as a subscriber on the list:
   governance at lists.cpsr.org
To be removed from the list, visit:
   http://www.igcaucus.org/ <http://www.igcaucus.org/unsubscribing>
unsubscribing

For all other list information and functions, see:
   http://lists.cpsr.org/lists/
<http://lists.cpsr.org/lists/info/governance> info/governance
To edit your profile and to find the IGC's charter, see:
   http://www.igcaucus.org/

Translate this email: http://translate.google.com/
<http://translate.google.com/translate_t> translate_t






-- 

Sala
 
" Perfect Stillness in the midst of the noise".


____________________________________________________________
You received this message as a subscriber on the list:
    governance at lists.cpsr.org
To be removed from the list, visit:
    http://www.igcaucus.org/unsubscribing

For all other list information and functions, see:
    http://lists.cpsr.org/lists/info/governance
To edit your profile and to find the IGC's charter, see:
    http://www.igcaucus.org/

Translate this email: http://translate.google.com/translate_t








-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.igcaucus.org/pipermail/governance/attachments/20110827/d15cd87d/attachment.htm>
-------------- next part --------------
____________________________________________________________
You received this message as a subscriber on the list:
     governance at lists.cpsr.org
To be removed from the list, visit:
     http://www.igcaucus.org/unsubscribing

For all other list information and functions, see:
     http://lists.cpsr.org/lists/info/governance
To edit your profile and to find the IGC's charter, see:
     http://www.igcaucus.org/

Translate this email: http://translate.google.com/translate_t