Governing Networks and Cyberspace Rule-Making
45 Emory Law Journal 911 (1996)
20 Pages Posted: 31 Jan 1997 Last revised: 4 Apr 2015
Abstract
The global information infrastructure poses a fundamental challenge to the conventional foundations of governance. This article argues that global networks structurally alter regulatory decisionmaking. National borders and sectoral boundaries lose an important degree of relevance while network borders and network communities gain prominence. The article shows that basic regulatory policymaking whether under the anti-statist American approach or the comprehensive European approach are ill-suited to the GII.Instead, Reidenberg argues for a new "network governance paradigm" that recognizes the complexity of regulatory power centers, utilizes new policy instruments such as technical standardization to achieve regulatory objectives, accord status to networks as semi-sovereign entities with "network federalism" to establish separation of power rules between physical and cyber jurisdiction, and shift the role of the state toward the creation of an incentive structure for network based rule-making.
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