I recently had the chance to write about the question of what international law has to due with blogging and other conduct in the ‘blogosphere’.

Because of globalization, the world has a chance to meet on an internet commons using internet communications technologies (ICT) for the first time in history; here, we interact with each other across cultures and create a whole host of new legal issues; Thusfar, the predominant way in which these issues have been presented for resolution has resulted in a series of conflicts between weakening international laws and multiple domestic laws all vying for superiority over each other. A perfect case study of this phenomenon occurs in the Blogosphere. Blogging across cultures results in multiple personal jurisdictional claims by affected jurisdictions who assert the right to protect their nationals. Whose law governs, the prime focal point of internet governance and jurisprudence, is the major international law issue which needs resolution.

What is today’s state of play on internet governance? Regardless of the group dealing with the legal issue, the analysis always ends up focusing on where all the conflicts of law exist and less on how we can resolve these issues in a short time (change the process!) as opposed to the generation or two it seems to be taking. (see fn 1 at end) Can anyone doubt that the global commons can’t function successfully if it must suffer a decades long process of deciding who gets to decide the norms and law of the internet? We need to come up with new ways to generate customary international law for the commons.

Building a global culture of collaboration to serve society by shaping an online justice system (OJS) is IBO’s main mission. An OJS that supports the needs of an emerging global society to find order in cyberspace IS one way the legal profession can help society regain trust in each other and our institutions. We can create a new process to bring to life the customary international law cyberspace needs to function as a global commons and marketplace. IBO’s goal is to organize online communities which are trusted to help build a cross-cultural consensus on what should be the normative (predictable) behavior on the global commons. By doing this, we believe we are helping the legal profession live up to our responsibility to lead society in times of great change. Ultimately, it is up to lawyers as a group to promote harmonization and avoid conflict. And we think that a virtual bar association for lawyers and anyone else interested in law reform to meet on the internet commons CAN help foster a global culture of collaboration.

I wrote about the lawyer’s role to build a new international law making process in New England School International Journal where I described the responsibility of lawyers to bring the rule of law to cyberspace:

“Samuel Johnson’s instructive words remind today’s lawyers that
experience must guide the transformation of the practice of law in the
twenty-first century. Lawyers must draw upon historic roots as the
guardians of the rule of law and face the challenges of a changing world by
finding new ways to practice law in the next century as a global online
society emerges. As lawyers, we must remind ourselves, our profession is
nimble, providing society a steady-beacon in its foggiest hours. We must
draw upon our collective experience to assure that rapid changes in society
coincide with rapid changes in the law and social order. In the first decade
of the twenty-first century, cyberspace will become the place where most of
the world’s business is conducted; and, a networked world will demand that
a global legal architecture be put into place. As the mechanisms for making
global law struggle to keep pace with changes wrought by the Information
Age, the legal profession can and should be at the forefront of bringing
about just rules of law to the electronic frontier. Our profession’s historic
opportunity is to transform itself and become global by meeting the needs
of the new global online society.
The global online society will look to private parties as well as to
governments to develop rules of law for transactions occurring in
cyberspace. Indeed, international law is no longer solely the rubric of the
nation-state foreign ministries and state departments. The changing role and
global nature of the legal profession also present many new challenges and
opportunities for the day-to-day practice of every lawyer.
4 SAMUEL JOHNSON, PIOZZI: ANECDOTES c.1750. (English, Author).

http://www.nesl.edu/intljournal/vol8/aresty_v8n1.pdf

To start the global consensus building community for bringing the rule of law to cyberspace, IBO is starting a contest to build a trusted online community. Our first task is to come to a global consensus around the issue of culture and honesty, which is being led by our esteemed colleague, Boston U Law professor, Tamar Frankel. The contest is being set up to attract participation especially from young lawyers, law students, business students, and anyone else interested in these topics who want to make a contribution. Since the grand prize will be the opportunity to be the Reporter at the 6th International Forum on Online Dispute Resolution to be held in Hong Kong this December, with all expenses paid (it is co-sponsored by the UN and let by Ethan Katsh and the U Mass CITDR (www.odr.info), we hope and anticipate a broad participation in the contest from all generations! We can hope and work hard to make this a reality with the help of many! The contest will be announced shortly, and if you want you can take a peek at http://www.internetbarcontest.org/.

Internet governance is the most significant international issue of them all as it will affect the outcome of every activity humans can devise when using internet communication technologies.

fn 1 - Fn1 - From my activities/readings from all of the ABA sections (SciTech, Business Law, International, TIPS) I belong to, today’s commons activity is mostly a series of reports on ongoing legal conflict with some early attempts at harmonization that don’t have much success. This state has arisen because there isn’t an agreement in the world today about who governs the internet. For lawyers and terrestrial bar associations, the result is a case by case application of international laws (conventions, treaties, some customary law, and a whole host of conflicting norms) to global commons conduct (like blogging) which most times creates conflict with several domestic laws which also apply to the same conduct due to disparate personal jurisdiction standards.