[discuss] discuss Digest, Vol 4, Issue 145

[Milton L Mueller]

Phil:

-----Original Message-----
>But what legal regime would you replace US law with? If there is no 
>applicable body of law for ICANN then it is above the law and litigation-
>proof, and as a party interacting with private sector registries and 
>registrars the potential for litigation enforces one type of accountability. 
>Likewise, those contracted parties must know what body of law will 
>interpret and enforce those contracts.

This is why IGP proposed to separate broader reforms of ICANN's incorporation and its policy making process from the globalization of the technical-clerical IANA functions. They are very distinct problems. Replacement of US law (if that is deemed advisable) might even require a new international treaty instrument. 

It is relatively easy for us to let the IANA contract expire and pull the DNS-related IANA functions out of ICANN and into a new entity. Much harder to reincorporate ICANN and reform its policy making process. Try to do those two things together, and you either enter a morass of interdependent changes, or you just hand everything to ICANN without any accountability.