International and National Regulation of the Internet

Abstract

This essay responds to a request for a discussion of "the governance issues regarding ICANN" and "similar issues existing with the national registry activities" in the context of "international and national regulation of the Internet". The essay suggests that Internet regulation today should be conceived of as involving three related spheres: Direct regulation of the internet infrastructure itself; regulation of activities that can be conducted only over the internet; and, regulation of activities which can be, but need not be, conducted over the Internet. ICANN's legitimacy is greatest in the first sphere, but it faces pressures that push it into the others. The essay also contains an extended technical section describing the participants in the internet regulatory ecology.

Keywords: ICANN, DNS, domain names, Internet governance, cyberlaw