Governance in Cloud Computing

Abstract

This paper argues that neither national law nor self-regulation has the necessary legitimacy to govern cloud activities effectively. Legitimacy is conferred by a community’s continuing acceptance that a particular person or body should regulate its activities. Such acceptance requires that the regulator is properly representative of the community, and also that the rules it promulgates impose meaningful obligations and respect the differing rights of community members. States are part of the cloud community, so the result will inevitably be co-regulation.

Currently the cloud is regulated by a patchwork of national laws, none of which were designed with the cloud in mind, and there is already a degree of self-regulation. Is there a route through which the self-regulators could evolve into a transnational co-regulatory system which is sufficiently legitimate to be accepted by states? The paper suggests that there is, although it will require substantial changes in constitution, scope and approach to be successful.