Speaking on co-regulation and constitutionalism at Wharton

Its always a great pleasure to accept Kevin Werbach's invite to Wharton to discuss media and communications law. In particular, its the concept, one hour per paper for a brief introduction and a long discussion - which requires the superb and engaged scholars that Kevin attracts.
Two rules: its work-in-progress so nothing public, and you have to read and note every paper in advance to properly participate. This year, I am talking co-regulation and Kevin has pointed me to this fascinating Phil Weiser net neutrality co-regulation paper that somehow slipped under my radar - he takes co-regulation from the Ofcom study which is derivative of everything else (with a nod to pioneering Schulz-Held in 2001), so that makes my paper an intellectual and policy history of how Europe got to that point.

Civil society: OSCE urges state torturers to 'open dialogue with civil society'

Its quite absurd that the OSCE is urging the 'Stans (the ex-Soviet but still brutal kleptocracy-dictatorships in central Asia) to open dialogue with civil society. These regimes torture including by boiling victims to death. How the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) pretends to discuss open engagement is a Kafka-esque invention that Orwell would have been proud of: "Giving formal legal status to public councils and other consultative bodies will also be on the agenda, as will strengthening mechanisms for financial support of NGOs and the establishment of governmental bodies designed to improve co-operation between governments and civil society. Non-governmental organizations have a vital role to play in the promotion of human rights, democracy and the rule of law, but to do so, they need an enabling environment with adequate legal and financial frameworks," said Snjezana Bokulic, Head of ODIHR's Human Rights Department.

The limits of co-regulation: tax avoidance and Big Banks

So Boy George tries to persuade banks to take a bath - and they essentially told him to get lost (except 4 that he owns). Now he must have come back with some bribes because 15 of them are playing ball: "Osborne is stepping back from plans, initiated by the Labour government, to demand that bankers disclose how many of their employees earn more than £500,000 a year." Is this what you would call a voluntary Code of Practice? Not in my book...

Social Networking Bill of Rights?

It'll be a bit difficult in the States as Facebook is governed by contract not privacy law, but Europe offers more hope of some regulation of Mr Zuckerberg's universe.

Self- or co-regulation for UK ISPs?

Adjournment debate in Parliament - with a very interesting intervention about coding of mobile content. Minister Vaizey (yes, that one) stated: "I mentioned this during my speech on net neutrality last week-that they can manage the traffic that crosses their network in order to give their consumers a good service... It seems to me that, given that rights holders are fully aware of the websites that are distributing their content illegally, ISPs could do more in that regard."

96,000 word book finally delivered! Cambridge University Press next year

Internet co-regulation!

Chapter 1: States, the Internet and legitimacy of co-regulation 15.6

Chapter 2: Reflexive co-regulation and the Internet 11.5

Chapter 3: Self-organization and social networks 12.3

39.4

Chapter 4: Self-regulation and standards 11.8

Chapter 5: Co-regulation and medium law 13.8

Chapter 6: Privatized censorship: ISPs and co-regulation 13.5

39.1

Chapter 7: Of governance and governments: roots of all nets? 8.4

Chapter 8: Intelligent governance: the role of governments in co-regulation 9.1

17.5

96.000k