How to Rein In the "Wild Wild Web"

How to Rein In the "Wild Wild Web" Customary Law of the Internet (In the Search for a Supranational Cyberspace Law) By Przemyslaw Paul Polanski. The Hague, Netherlands: TMC Asser Press; Distributed by Cambridge University Press (www.cambridge.org), 2007. Hardcover. $117. 437 pages.

Is the Internet the new Wild West? Its worldwide nature and lack of a global legal or regulatory framework may account for why some people think it is a lawless phenomenon.

Paul Polanski posits in this book that, despite the lack of globally binding laws, there are existing norms that could be used by international organizations, local governments, arbitrators and judges to settle disputes in cyberspace. He proposes using custom as a potential source of global Internet law to regulate electronic commerce. "Custom is the oldest source of law, known to all legal orders across space and time," writes Polanski, a lawyer, software engineer and senior researcher at the University of Warsaw's (Poland) Department of European Law.

A major advantage of using custom is that it is flexible. For example, Internet customs reflect changes in user practices as soon as the changes occur. Another advantage is that average Internet users understand these customs, whereas they may be unfamiliar with written laws.

On the other hand, Polanski admits that the mechanism of custom formation is poorly understood. The debate over what constitutes a custom is ongoing. "Traditional customary practice is very difficult to evidence," he explains. "No legal work has attempted to prescribe a methodology for evidencing customary norms."

This book focuses on the business sphere of cyberspace and covers alternative dispute resolution (ADR) only insofar as ADR processes relate to the Internet. For example, it mentions the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), which manages domain names and uses ADR to settle domain-name disputes. Although limited to one particular kind of dispute, ICANN's arbitration system could serve as a precursor to a wider dispute resolution mechanism, Polanski suggests.

Developing an international agreement might also help build a global legal framework for electronic commerce. This was the purpose of the 2005 Convention on the Use of Electronic Communications in International Contracts, the first treaty devoted to Internet commerce. But Polanski says it is too soon to evaluate the impact of this convention.

Despite the fact that some countries have started to regulate e-commerce, in Polanski's view, the Internet community presently functions, to a large extent, in a legal vacuum. He contends that domestic regulation will not only be inadequate, it will create new problems. "This national approach to regulating the Internet may end up creating islands of regulation, where Internet users will not know their rights and obligations, thus increasing uncertainty rather than eliminating it," Polanski explains.

This book discusses legal issues currently facing the e-commerce community, and poses important questions relating to regulatory efforts. It is a must-read for members of the e-commerce industry, national and international policymakers, and students and researchers interested in Internet commerce.

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The Internet:At a Glance

Here are some interesting facts about the Internet from Customary Law of the Internet (In the Search for a Supranational Cyberspace Law) by Paul Polanski:

* In December 1969, the Advanced Research Projects Agency Network (ARPANET), an interstate network of computers linking four research centers in California and Utah, was born.

* In 1971, Ray Tomlinson invented e-mail.

* In 1973, ARPANET became an international computer network and a tool for researchers to share knowledge for military purposes.

* In 1974, two American engineers, Vinton Cerf and Robert Kahn, proposed a protocol known today as the Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol. This ultimately became the foundation of the Internet.

* In 1989, the concept of Word Wide Web pages connected to one another via links was developed.

* In 1993, the Word Wide Web took off when the first graphical, multimedia- enabled, user-friendly Web browser Mosaic X was launched, followed by the introduction of Netscape 1.0 the following year.

The Internet community presently functions, to a large extent, in a legal vacuum, despite the fact that some countries have started regulating e-commerce.

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Customary Law of the Internet

[Author Affiliation]

Unless otherwise noted, reviews in this section are by contributing book review editor Cindy Fazzi.