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21 Int'l Rev. L. Computers & Tech. 1 (2007)

handle is hein.journals/irlct21 and id is 1 raw text is: INTERNATIONAL REVIEW OF LAW COMPUTERS ROutledge & TECHNOLOGY, VOLUME 21, No. 1, PAGES 1-3, MARCH 2007 2\ & c Foreword: Internet Governance JOSEPH A. CANNATACI and JEANNE PIA MIFSUD-BONNICI On the 13 February 2007, a meeting was organised at the United Nations (UN) in Geneva to discuss the outcome of the Internet Governance Forum (IGF) held in Athens in autumn 2006. This February Geneva meeting was described as being 'a stock-tacking' occasion and also served to prepare for the next IGF annual meeting scheduled to be held in Rio de Janeiro in November 2007. The next IGF meetings are all lined up. 'The Governments of India and Egypt offered to host the 2008 and 2009 IGF meetings respectively, while the Governments of Lithuania and Azerbaijan made a bid for the 2010 meeting.'1 The term 'Internet Governance' has thus become an accepted 'term of art' within the UN and across the world, following the World Summit for the Information Society (WSIS) held in two stages first in Geneva (2003) and then in Tunis (2005). It was at WSIS in Tunis that a compromise agreement was reached establishing the IGF, a con- sultative body that has no executive powers over the way the Internet's infrastructure is run. The debate until the Tunis meeting in 2005 revolved largely as to whether the USA should continue to have oversight of the Internet's basic infrastructure including the Domain Name System (DNS) or as to whether this should be transferred to a system of governance far more representative of the international body of nations. The USA refused to relinquish control and instead the IGF was born as a new international body which could meet, discuss matters and express opinions ... but little else. The emer- gence of the IGF has been variously described as 'a win for the United States', 'the whole world wins' or 'much more could have been achieved'.2 The five papers in this volume do not attempt to establish as to whether the IGF is going to be more than a talking shop. Instead they provide five different viewpoints on the nature of regulation of the Internet and help outline the complexity of the situation. Kevin Rogers's paper serves to lead the reader into a narrative of what led up to the Tunis agreement and then sketches out some of the viewpoints of as to whether the USA would continue to have oversight of the Internet's infrastructure or whether things should evolve (or be pushed) in a different direction. In his analysis, Rogers is con- cerned that 'unless the key players-particularly the United States-alter their stance, the Correspondence: Joseph A. Cannataci, Head of Lancashire Law School, Harris Building H107, University of Central Lancashire, Preston PRi 2HE, UK. E-mail: JACannataci@uclan.ac.uk ISSN 1360-0869 print/ISSN 1364-6885 online/07/010001 3 0 2007 Taylor & Francis DOI: 10.1080/13600860701281622

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