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

[Paul Lehto]

On 8/29/11, Daniel Kalchev wrote:
>>> however imperfect, the current
>>> multi-national system of governance works. It regulates more or less
>>> global trade, immigration etc. But it does not regulate the Internet.
>>> Not because of lack of desire, but because nobody in these
>>> 'governmental' structures understands Internet.

"Understanding the internet" in some technical or even metaphysical
way is definitely *not* a prerequisite to regulation.  Given the
instances where bills that do in fact become law and regulation are
claimed to be neither read by the representatives nor understood by
them, we have many examples of failure to understand a system combined
with actual regulation.

This being said, in a few cases at least, it's entirely possible that
claiming one never read a bill prior to passage might be an "ignorance
is bliss" defense for what in fact WAS understood, even if understood
through an analysis of the bill written by a staffer or some public
policy organization, rather than reading the bill itself.

At least in my country, much is regularly made about "not reading a
bill", referring both to congress not reading bills and to voters
about to lobby congress having not read a bill.  But the fact is that
"reading a bill" often times makes the reader more dangerous because
they think they understand it and are informed, when in fact only a
relatively sophisticated legal analysis about how the bill will
interact with and shift the kaleidoscope of the law in that area will
give a person a real idea about what the bill truly means.  This means
that even a person with a Ph.D. in the native language will not really
understand many complicated bills, no matter how carefully they read
it.

This is a symptom of a probably-necessary over-reliance on a group of
experts known as lawyers (or those trained in the law).  That being
said, voters can choose their expert interpreters of proposed
legislation from the various politicians and interest groups out
there, all of whom have lawyers studying the bill, and thus become
reasonably well informed in that manner.
> --
> Roland Perry
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-- 
Paul R Lehto, J.D.
P.O. Box 1
Ishpeming, MI  49849
lehto.paul at gmail.com
906-204-4026 (cell)
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