Europe and the Internet: The Old World and the New Medium

Abstract

With the Internet being more or less an American affair, the question arises as to whether its regulation has also to be dominated by the US. This article explores different European attempts at regulating the Internet, taking Germany, France and the EU as examples. At least two problems emerge: regulatory fragmentation between different European states and between the EU and its Member States, and the fact that traditional legislative mechanisms probably work too slowly to cope with the development of Cyberspace. In spite of these European efforts, the US (through 'indirect unilateralism') still dominates Internet governance. It has privileged access to the level of Cyberspace regulation where the technical architecture of Cyberspace is determined, as illustrated by domain name system saga around ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers). The conclusion is that, so far, Europeans have failed to shift the crucial issue of regulation of technical control over the Internet on to a truly international arena. The article acknowledges that it is not clear yet what a comprehensive international law approach to Internet governance could be like, but calls on international law to take up the issue of Internet governance and to take it seriously.