Internet Law Commons^™

The Hedgehog And The Fox: Distinguishing Public And Private Sector Approaches To Managing Risk For Internet Transactions, Jane Kaufman Winn

Articles

In his essay The Hedgehog and the Fox, Isaiah Berlin used an ancient Greek proverb comparing these animals as a metaphor to express a deep division among thinkers and writers in their understanding of the human condition. In this essay, I extend the metaphor to contrast the differing approaches to risk management taken by the public sector in the exercise of its sovereign functions and that taken by members of the private sector in the conduct of commercial transactions. In light of the differences in these basic approaches to questions of risk management, I will evaluate some widely discussed …

Application-Centered Internet Analysis, Tim Wu

Faculty Scholarship

There is a now-standard debate about law and the Internet. One side asserts that the Internet is so new and different that it calls for new legal approaches, even its own sovereign law. The other side argues that, although it is a new technology, the Internet nonetheless presents familiar legal problems. It is a battle of analogies: One side refers to Cyberspace as a place, while the other essentially equates the Internet and the telephone.

In my view, these two positions are both wrong and right: wrong in their characterization of the Internet as a whole, yet potentially right about …

The Constitution And Encryption Regulation: Do We Need A "New Privacy"?, A. Michael Froomkin

Articles

No abstract provided.

Of Governments And Governance, A. Michael Froomkin

Articles

The Magaziner Report focuses on achieving short-term goals without giving sufficient consideration to long-term consequences affecting the structure of Internet governance and democracy in general. This overly pragmatic approach creates a paradoxical climate: overly-friendly to government intervention (in e-commerce regulation) while also overly willing to defer to privatized governance structures (in other areas). As the recent World Intellectual Property Organization ("WIPO") domain name/trademark process demonstrates, certain Internet governance processes raise several questions, not least discerning whether such processes include adequate notice and consultation. More traditional democratic processes, such as legislation and regulation, have routinized means of giving affected parties notice …

Restoring Americans' Privacy In Electronic Commerce Symposium - The Legal And Policy Framework For Global Electronic Commerce: A Progress Report, Joel R. Reidenberg

Faculty Scholarship

In the United States today, substance abusers have greater privacy than web users and privacy has become the critical issue for the development of electronic commerce. Yet, the U.S. government’s privacy policy relies on industry self-regulation rather than legal rights. This article argues that the theory of self-regulation has normative flaws and that public experience shows the failure of industry to implement fair information practices. Together the flawed theory and data scandals demonstrate the sophistry of U.S. policy. The article then examines the comprehensive legal rights approach to data protection that has been adopted by governments around the world, most …

Resolving Conflicting International Data Privacy Rules In Cyberspace, Joel R. Reidenberg

Faculty Scholarship

While core principles for the fair treatment of personal information are common to democracies, privacy rights vary considerably across national borders. This article explores the divergences in approach and substance of data privacy between Europe and the United States. It argues that the specific privacy rules adopted in a country have a governance function. The article shows that national differences support two distinct political choices for the roles in democratic society assigned to the state, the market and the individual: either liberal, market-based governance or socially-protective, rights-based governance. These structural divergences make international cooperation imperative for effective data protection in …