[discuss] [IANAxfer] [ccnso-igrg] Two accountability questions - help pls- Workshop 23 - ICANN accountability

[Milton L Mueller]

> Trying to make IANA
> accountability structures that address the IANA operator's failure to perform
> is quite straightforward; it is when we also try to address the possible
> situation of the IANA operator performing exactly as directed (but somehow
> out of alignment with served community) that designing mechanisms for
> accountability becomes rather challenging...

Yes, that's why some of us favor structural separation and why IANA transition and ICANN accountability are on separate tracks.
We should not mix up the two requirements. 

A bad way of mixing them up is allowing the IANA operator to veto or alter approved policies. 

A good way to reconcile those two requirements is to have an "independent judiciary" with the authority to enforce binding, constitutional limitations on what the policy process can do. This appeals process could be used to challenge ultra vires policies, to challenge major process failures, or to challenge implementations that do not reflect agreed policies. All of these challenges should take place BEFORE anything hits the IANA, of course. If policy (ICANN) and IANA are integrated in the same organization, it becomes harder to enforce that kind of accountability, imho.