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Wednesday, November 16, 2005

Peremptory Norm

CNN is reporting that an agreement among more than 100 nations will be accepted when the UN Internet Conference opens in Tunisia today; a deal that will avert an EU/US showdown. It accepts the oversight and governance of the United States and ICANN as regards assigned names and numbers.

U.S. officials said early Wednesday that instead of transferring management of the system to an international body such as the United Nations, an international forum would be created to address concerns. The forum, however, would have no binding authority.

MORE: What is the import of this pact? I think what is immediately remarkable is that stateside opposition to the UN/EU takeover attempt was—and remains—barely a blip on the international scene. There have been a few op-eds and one or two leaders in Congress, but no big, resounding show was ever made by American citizens to protect the internet from falling under the UN’s pocked auspices. And yet, what a thorough deal this seems to be. It is a complete “hands off!” as regards the administration of assigned names and numbers. It seems likely that elites at the United Nations foresaw that, if the debate penetrated deep into America, and if our private sector and citizenry were awakened to it, the movement to hold firmly onto the ‘net would be nothing short of a groundswell. There was going to be no co-opting the internet unless the debate remained restrained, technical, and quiet. International institutionalists here chose their battle wisely, and compromised all of their demands for internationalizing control of the internet.

With respect to the resurgence of nationalism and sovereignty in the face of sometimes silly, sometimes oppressive, always hazy customary international law of the sort that inexplicably deems the internet ripe for takeover, Bradley and Goldsmith, and Posner are fellows to read. But there are plenty of intelligent jurists, academics, and observers who fully embrace international law as it exists today. For them and for most people, I think, the most salient argument against internationalization of the internet is evinced in these two paragraphs from the above-linked CNN report:

While the summit drew thousands of people from around the world, most western countries opted not to send their top-ranking leaders, preferring instead to send government workers and low-level figures.

However, other leaders were scheduled to attend, including Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo, Senegal’s Abdulaye Wade and Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi. Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez was due to fly to the summit Wednesday, organizers said.

That’s a heck of a signal. The people who really care about getting this democratic medium out of American hands are Chavez and Kadhafi. Without much further investigation, freedom-loving people may safely oppose whatever that duo’s view is on the regulation of media.

UPDATE: More from the AP here.

Posted on November 16, 2005 07:58 AM. Permalink