[ncdnhc-discuss] Board retreats and fully transparent process for ICANN

[Jonathan Weinberg]

On Mon, 27 May 2002, Dave Crocker wrote:
> >  City halls, Shareholder meetings, the Federal Communications Commission, 
> 
> and they are permitted closed meetings.

	Like other U.S. federal multimember agencies, the U.S. Federal
Communications Commission is forbidden closed meetings except in very
limited circumstances: where the relevant portion of the meeting would
disclose confidential trade secrets, involve accusing a person of a crime,
disclose personal information constituting a clearly unwarranted invasion
of personal privacy, etc.  The agency can't evade that rule by renaming
the meeting a "retreat" and postphoning any formal votes until later.

	The fact that the body is allowed *some* closed meetings shouldn't
obscure the fact that the agency is not allowed the sort of closed meeting
that ICANN is engaging in and that Jamie is criticizing.

Jon


Jonathan Weinberg
Professor of Law, Wayne State University
weinberg at msen.com