• Login
View Item 
  • DASH Home
  • Harvard Central Administration and University Research Centers
  • Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society Scholarly Articles
  • View Item
  • DASH Home
  • Harvard Central Administration and University Research Centers
  • Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society Scholarly Articles
  • View Item
JavaScript is disabled for your browser. Some features of this site may not work without it.

Browse

All of DASH
  • Communities & Collections
  • By Issue Date
  • Author
  • Title
  • Keyword
  • FAS Department
This Collection
  • By Issue Date
  • Author
  • Title
  • Keyword

Submitters

  • Login
  • Quick submit
  • Waiver Generator

About

  • About DASH
  • DASH Stories
  • DASH FAQs
  • Accessibility
  • COVID-related Research
  • Terms of Use
  • Privacy Policy

Statistics

  • By Schools
  • By Collections
  • By Departments
  • By Items
  • By Country
  • By Authors

Towards Digital Constitutionalism? Mapping Attempts to Craft an Internet Bill of Rights

 
Thumbnail
View/Open
SSRN-id2687120.pdf (1.619Mb)
Author
Gill, Lex
Redeker, Dennis
Gasser, UrsHARVARD
Metadata
Show full item record
Citation
Gill, Lex, Dennis Redeker, and Urs Gasser. 2015. "Towards Digital Constitutionalism? Mapping Attempts to Craft an Internet Bill of Rights." Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society Research Publication 2015-15.
Abstract
The idea of an “Internet Bill of Rights” is by no means a new one: in fact, serious efforts to draft such a document can be traced at least as far back as the mid-1990s. Though the form, function and scope of such initiatives has evolved, the concept has had remarkable staying power, and now — two full decades later — principles which were once radically aspirational have begun to crystallize into law. In this paper, we propose a unified term to describe these efforts using the umbrella of “digital constitutionalism” and conduct an analysis of thirty initiatives spanning from 1999 to 2015. These initiatives have great differences, and range from advocacy statements to official positions of intergovernmental organizations to proposed legislation. However, in their own way, they are each engaged in the same conversation, seeking to advance a relatively comprehensive set of rights, principles, and governance norms for the Internet, and are usefully understood as part of a broader proto-constitutional discourse. While this paper does not attempt to capture every facet of this complex political behavior, we hope to offer a preliminary map of the landscape, provide a comparative examination of these diverse efforts toward digital constitutionalism, and — most importantly — provoke new questions for further research and study. The paper proceeds in four parts, beginning with a preliminary definition for the concept of digital constitutionalism and a summary of our research methodology. Second, we present our core observations related to the full range of substantive rights, principles and themes proposed by these initiatives. Third, we build on that analysis to explore their perceived targets, the key actors and deliberative processes which have informed their character, and the changes in their substantive content over time. Finally, we look forward, identifying future directions for research in this rapidly changing policy arena and for the broader Internet governance community.
Other Sources
http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2687120
Terms of Use
This article is made available under the terms and conditions applicable to Other Posted Material, as set forth at http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:dash.current.terms-of-use#LAA
Citable link to this page
http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:28552582

Collections
  • Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society Scholarly Articles [91]

Contact administrator regarding this item (to report mistakes or request changes)

Follow us on TwitterFollow us on FacebookFollow us on Google+

e: osc@harvard.edu

t: +1 (617) 495 4089

f: +1 (617) 495 0370

© 2018 President and Fellows of Harvard College
  • DASH
  • ETDs@Harvard
  • Copyright First Responders
  • HOPE
  • Contact
  • Harvard Library
  • Harvard University