On 24/05/2015 09:29, Kavouss Arasteh wrote:
Dear Malcolm What are those terns and conditions as well as applicable rules?
The SOACs make their own rules. Unless a SOAC creates a rule to the contrary, a chair can be dismissed at will be a SOAC. This makes them completely accountable to the SOAC. That said, I think worrying about the misuse of the power of membership is misplaced. As I understand it, the only powers that members have are i) to go to court alleging that ICANN has not followed its own Bylaws; and ii) to inspect a few formal documents that the company is required to have by law. Is there anything else of which I'm unaware? I can't see any reason to worry about excessive or inappropriate use of such powers. Courts are familiar with frivolous litigation, and prepared to suppress and sanction it - nor could we immunise ICANN against being sued by anybody in the world on other grounds, even if we tried. If this is not a worry, and if there are no other relevant powers of which I'm unaware, there is an even simpler option that perhaps we should consider: that the members of ICANN can be anybody in the world who applies to become a member. This would resolve one of the problems with having part of "the community" as members: that they may decline to go to court when they ought to. Personally, I think that Chris' scenario of a member going to court to try to force ICANN to act in a way the Board deems to be outside ICANN's powers is pretty fanciful. Such a lawsuit would be doomed to failure: no court will order a corporation to act in a particular way merely because a member asks it, even if the corporation had erred in believing itself precluded from acting in that way. But a much more realistic scenario is that of a member going to court to restrain the ICANN from acting in a way the Board consider within ICANN's powers, but that the member considers outside scope. A court could rule on whether a given action is outside a corporation's powers, and if it finds that it is, order the corporation to desist. However, there is a problem: if the Board is acting outside ICANN's scope, quite likely this will not be a rogue Board acting in defiance of the community, but rather a Board acting with the full support of the SOACs: a "rogue community" asking ICANN to act outside its proper scope. Who then is to restrain them? Having a broad membership would address this problem. So I ask this group, what (if any) problems might be caused by such an option? Malcolm. -- Malcolm Hutty | tel: +44 20 7645 3523 Head of Public Affairs | Read the LINX Public Affairs blog London Internet Exchange | http://publicaffairs.linx.net/ London Internet Exchange Ltd 21-27 St Thomas Street, London SE1 9RY Company Registered in England No. 3137929 Trinity Court, Trinity Street, Peterborough PE1 1DA