International Journal of Communications Law & Policy

CONFERENCE REVIEWS
- A Free Information Ecology in the Digital Environment: NYU Law School, 31 March-2 April
- Computers, Freedom, Privacy: Westin Hotel Toronto, April 7-1
- Internet and Governance: Kennedy School, Harvard, May 30
- Internet and Society: Harvard, May 31 - June 2
By Christopher T. Marsden

Download the Paper in PDF Format: IJCLP Web-Doc 10-5-2000

Abstract

This review of the US intellectual scene is one-sided, biased, ill-informed and jaundiced. As a European whose specialism is constitutional and competition law, I am at once critic of both

- the social libertarian naivite of the technologically determinist computer 'digerati' and
- the corporatist inheritance which makes European society and industry so hidebound, hierarchical and unsuited to the Internet.

I am thus conservative constitutional critic of the Internet's insiders, and radical competition critic of the old socio-economic interests. It is uncomfortable having a foot on either side of the Atlantic, especially when the American foot is trying to reach to 'West Coast' code, the libertarians both social and economic, and the other foot spans US 'East Coast' code, and the chancelleries of Europe. This review of a series of conference attempts that impossible task: my apologies in advance for its failure. I am in good company.