Who Rules the Net?: Internet Governance and Jurisdiction

Adam D. Thierer, Clyde Wayne Crews

Cato Institute, Oct 25, 2003 - Political Science - 500 pages

The rise of the Internet has challenged traditional concepts of jurisdiction, governance, and sovereignty. Many observers have praised the Internet for its ubiquitous and "borderless" nature and argued that this global medium is revolutionizing the nature of modern communications. Indeed, in the universe of cyberspace there are no passports and geography is often treated as a meaningless concept. But does that mean traditional concepts of jurisdiction and governance are obsolete? When legal disputes arise in cyberspace, or when governments attempt to apply their legal standards or cultural norms to the Internet, how are such matters to be adjudicated?

Cultural norms and regulatory approaches vary from country to country, as reflected in such policies as free speech and libel standards, privacy policies, intellectual property, antitrust law, domain name dispute resolution, and tax policy. In each of those areas, policymakers have for years enacted myriad laws and regulations for "realspace" that are now being directly challenged by the rise of the parallel electronic universe known as cyberspace. Who is responsible for setting the standards in cyberspace? Is a "U.N. for the Internet"or a multinational treaty appropriate? If not, who's standards should govern cross-border cyber disputes? Are different standards appropriate for cyberspace and "real" space? Those questions are being posed with increasing frequency in the emerging field of cyberspace law and constitute the guiding theme this book's collection of essays.

Contents

• Tear Down This Firewall: 3
• Reconciling a Global Internet and Local Law: 13
• 3 Against Cyberanarchy: 31
• 4 Against Against Cyberanarchy: 71
• 5 The Shift Toward Targeting for Internet Jurisdiction: 91
• 6 Federalism in Cyberspace Revisited: 119
• 7 Multijurisdictional Regulation of the Internet: 159
• CURRENT DISPUTES ININTERNET GOVERNANCE: 217
• Does the Internets Global Reach Justify Less Freedom of Speech?: 219
• Publish Locally Defend Globally: 239
• 10 If It Aint Broke Why Is Everyone Trying to Fix It? Taxing ECommercein a DestinationBased World: 269
• 11 Privacy Protection and the Quest for Information Control: 297
• ICANN and thePrivatization Experiment: 333
• 13 Does Cyberspace Need Antitrust?: 363
• Notes: 377
• Contributors: 469
• Index: 479
• Cato Institute: 502

About the author

Adam D. Thierer is the former director of telecommunications studies at the Cato Institute. Thierer conducts research on how government regulations are hampering the evolution of communications networks, including telephony, broadcasting, cable, satellite and the Internet. He also examines the broader economic and constitutional aspects of telecommunications policy.

Clyde Wayne Crews was previously director of Technology Studies at the Cato Institute.

Bibliographic information

• Title: Who Rules the Net?: Internet Governance and Jurisdiction
• Editors: Adam D. Thierer, Clyde Wayne Crews
• Publisher: Cato Institute, 2003
• ISBN: 1933995769, 9781933995762
• Length: 500 pages
• Subjects: Computers / Security / General; Political Science / Public Policy / Cultural Policy