studies

This page looks at studies of ICANN, its operation and implications.

There has unfortunately no comprehensive study of ICANN's history and operation, although Milton Mueller's Ruling the Root (Cambridge: MIT Press 2002) and Multi-Stakeholder Governance and the Internet Governance Forum (Wembley: Terminus 2008) by Jeremy Malcolm are useful introductions. Coordinating the Internet (Cambridge: MIT Press 1997) edited by Brian Kahin & James Keller provides background to policy and technical questions.

There is a considerably less sympathetic view in The Domain Name Handbook: High Stakes & Strategies In Cyberspace (Gilroy: RD Books 1998) by Ellen & Peter Rony. It has a companion site and from our perspective is unduly sympathetic to Alternative Root scheme advocates. 

     perspectives

For perspectives on international nongovernment policy-setting and administrative bodies see Private Authority in International Affairs (Albany: State Uni of NY Press 1999) edited by A. Claire Cutler, Virginia Haufler & Tony Porter, The Politics of Global Governance: International Organizations in an Interdependent World (Boulder: Rienner 2001) edited by Paul Diehl, International Telecommunication Standards Organizations (Norwood: Artech 1990) by Andrew Macpherson, Governing Global Networks: International Regimes for Transportation & Communications (Cambridge: Cambridge Uni Press 1996) by Mark Zacher and Autonomous Policy-Making By International Organisations (London: Routledge 1999) edited by Bob Reinalda.

We've highlighted other writings in our Network, Governance and Intellectual Property guides.

     criticisms

Unofficial analysis of its activities is provided by a number of bodies, including ICANNWatch. 

ICANN was the subject of an interesting study - The ICANN At-Large Election - by US public interest groups the Center for Democracy & Technology (CDT) and Common Cause.   

That study was followed by a stinging attack from US online regulatory guru (or gadfly) Michael Froomkin. 

Froomkin followed up with a paper Is ICANN's New Generation of of Internet Domain Name Selection Process Thwarting Competition? With Mark Lemley, one of the more thoughtful analysts, he subsequently published a detailed paper (PDF) on ICANN & Antitrust, another 'must read'. It followed a critical report (PDF) by the US government's General Accounting Office.

Most analysis, understandably, has come from ICANN's opponents rather than its supporters.

Two examples are Jonathan Weinberg's paper An Analysis of the DNSO's Names Council and David Post's short paper on Juries & the UDRP. We've highlighted other writing by Post in our Governance guide.

Milton Mueller's detailed although problematical  Rough Justice report on the UDRP, discussed later in this profile, has been more influential.

     a new body?

As noted in the governance guide elsewhere on this site, some critics and supporters of ICANN have suggested that it would be best to establish a new body. 

Some suggest an international agency that would establish new rules or even lay the foundations for a far-reaching Lex Informatica or Lex Cyberspace, a uniform legal regime covering all online activity.

Others seek a UN-style body (which would somehow escape the problems blighting the UN) to provide global government of consumer, intellectual property, access and other questions.

Examples are Ralph Nader's January 2001 call for a World Consumer Protection Organization (WCPO), on the model of the World Intellectual Property Organization but "more democratically run" and the suggestion by the American Bar Association, in its major cyberspace law project report, for a global commission to set international rules regarding consumer protection, privacy, taxation, banking, gambling and other online activities. 




   next page  (advocacy)