On 2014-12-17 16:07, Jordan Carter wrote:
Thanks Bruce, Steve.
I've read the rest of the thread and think it goes down a little bit of a rabbit hole, but that's OK (maybe it means the same one won't appear later?).
For me the primary concern with a non-defined use of the term "public interest" is that it gives license to the person using it to advance beyond the ICANN remit of technical coordination of the DNS and other Internet identifiers, into all sorts of other things. Alternatively, it can be used to try and dismiss proposed policy or practice that make sense to the operational communities.
On that basis I have a degree of comfort with Steve's post. If we are clear that ICANN serves the global public interest by serving the operational communities and coordinating among and between names, numbers and protocols, then other questions get a bit easier to answer.
I wholeheartedly agree, and I think Steve's post points the way forward on defining what we want to hold ICANN accountable for doing. I would also apply the same reasoning to the comments going on a parallel thread on "principles of international public law". Certainly I would regard it as being in the public interest that ICANN should discharge its functions properly, and in accordance with generally accepted principles of law. I would be very wary, however, of linking those concepts in a way that pointed to ICANN's functions being bent towards promoting the multitude of objectives and outcomes that might be said to be a matter of public interest, or called for by principles of international public law. So if we are to refer to these concepts, I think it is very important *how* we refer to them. We should be very careful not to create a sense that the narrow scope of ICANN's responsibilities for DNS is supplemented by a broader ambition to use the DNS to pursue a general and unbounded set of policies "in the public interest", or to accept responsibility for achieving the goals set by the wide range of instruments and measures that make up international public law. 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