Abstract extract: In this Article, Dawn C. Nunziato of the George Washington University Law School sets forth her conception of the normative procedural and substantive ideals of liberal democracy, with an eye toward how these ideals should be implemented in the context of Internet governance. She then examines whether ICANN’s governance structure embodies the normative ideals of liberal democracy. While ICANN’s framers committed it to procedural democratic norms, they failed to commit ICANN to substantive normative ideals integral to liberal democracy such as the protection of freedom of expression. Next, she provides concrete recommendations for ICANN to implement meaningful protections for freedom of expression by looking to the general themes and principles embodied within the United States’ First Amendment jurisprudence.
To see all of Dawn Nunziato’s article on the Social Science Research Network website, see ssrn.com/abstract=1003392