The Normative Order of the Internet

Abstract

Chapter 6 presents in detail the normative order of the internet based on the notion of a necessary identification of, and turn toward, a nomos of the internet, which is embedded in, and configures, the normative order of the internet. The study shows that this order has many facets, contains national, international, public, and private norms, but has importantly developed its own normative logic, instruments and rules on the relation of actors and its own conception of the legitimacy of norms. The normative order provides a normative infrastructure in which the internet’s nomos, including its means of normative production and justification, are anchored. The study will determine norms belonging to the normative order of the internet to be those that have a material (non-trivial) and a normative (not merely factual) connection to the internet as a network of networks. These norms will be shown to be formally and materially legitimated. Formal legitimation will be shown to be achievable through symbolic validation through norm emergence in processes involving multiple actors. Material legitimation is possible through norms being determinate enough for their purpose (thus allowing for non-binding instruments), coherent with the core principles of the normative order of the internet, consonant with the order’s values as expressed in its principles, and adhering systematically to the normative order as a whole.