The parallels Jay Fenello describes are all very well but he has rather
omitted to mention that ICANN has to operate in the already existing
Internet Jurisdiction. This poses problems that did not exist when a state
jurisdiction was being created in the new world. Main difference is that
the Internet Jurisdiction embraces the whole world and not just the United
States of America.
An advantage for ICANN is that they have a rather better means of
communication than existed in the eighteenth century.
We need to go back to a very much earlier time (1000 to 1500AD) when the
whole world, which turns out to be the coastal states of the Mediterranean
and Baltic seas, were trying to establish some rules for living together.
When they were not fighting wars their peaceful citizens were trading
together. By about 1500 the lex mercatoria was more or less settled and is
reflected in the Uniform Commercial Code today.
Now at the year 2000 it turns out that our predecessors of 500 and more
years ago had not made adequate provision for the Internet. So it seems we
have to pick up where they left off.
A way of creating the Law of the Internet Jurisdiction is to follow the
model of 500 years ago and some suggestions on those lines are given at
the URL below. Under this suggestion no one has a big shout and everyone
has a very very small shout. As sense emerges there is unison in the small
shouts and they become a very large shout indeed which settles the matter
at least for a while. But it will all take time.
Regards.
Cliff Dilloway [EMAIL PROTECTED] pr
For Internet Self Regulation see:
http://www.endispute.co.uk/isr/israem.htm
