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² Cf., BGHZ 149, 191 – „shell.de“ and the commentary of Dietrich C. Becker, Von Namen und Nummern – Zur Behandlung von Kollisionen unerträglicher Rechtsmassen im Internet, in RECHTSVERFASSUNGSRECHT, (Gunther Teubner/Christian Joerges eds., 2003), at 271; Jörg Dittrich, Namensverletzung gem. § 12 BGB durch eine Domain trotz Gleichnamigkeit, JurPC: INTERNET-ZEITSCHRIFT FÜR RECHTSINFORMATIK, Web-Dok. 144/2002, available at http://www.jurpc.de; M. Körner, Gleichnamigkeitskonflikte bei Internet-Domain-Namen – Die „shell.de“ Entscheidung des BGH, NJW 3442 (2002).Google Scholar

³ Cf., on the use of generic concepts as domain names, ‘Mitwohnzentrale.de', BGH, Judgment of 17.05.2001 – I ZR 251/99 -, BGHZ 148, 13; for case notations, cf., Dietrich C. Becker, supra note 2; Peer Zumbansen, Paving The Way For Cyberlaw: Two FCJ Decisions on Domain Names, 2 GERMAN LAW JOURNAL (2001), available at www.germanlawjournal.com/printphp?id=28.Google Scholar

⁴ Cf., for a comprehensive review of the history of the case: http://archiv.greenpeace.de/GP_DOK_3P/BRENNPUN/F0011D.HTM.Google Scholar

⁵ Berlin, LG, Judgment of 18.01.2001–16.0.33/01, http://archiv.greenpeace.de/GP_DOK_3P/BRENNPUN/F0011C6.PDF.Google Scholar

⁶ Kammergericht, Judgment of 23.10.2001–5 U 101/01, JurPC: INTERNET-ZEITSCHRIFT FÜR RECHTSINFORMATIK, Web-Dok. 130/2002, http//www.jurpc.de.Google Scholar

⁷ See Mayer, Patrick, supra note 1.Google Scholar

⁸ Cf., from American jurisprudence, the ‘Scientology-case', Religious Tech. Ctr. v. Netcom On-Line Communications Servs., Inc., 923, F. Supp. 1231, (N. D. Ca. 1995); cf., on conflict between copyright and free speech with regard to the aforementioned case, Yochai Benklar, Free as the Air to Common Use: First Amendment Constraints on Enclosure of the Public Domain, 74 N.Y.U. L. REV. 354 (1999), at 356.Google Scholar

⁹ See Mayer, Patrick, supra note 1.Google Scholar

¹⁰ Currently, , UDRP has no application to domain names in the country-specific Top-Level-Domains (ccTLDs), with the exception of the country-specific Top Level Domains of individual States (e.g., Tuvalu).Google Scholar

¹¹ Cf., for example, Société Accor contre M. Philippe Hartmann (D2001-0007): ‘under French law, whether a trademark may be freely used for a parody is controversial … in the case of a public not speaking English, or even speaking some English but being unfamiliar with the slang, the meaning of the word ‘sucks’ may not be understood, nor its use in order to designate Web sites aimed at ‘cyberprotest'; Diageo plc v. John Zuccarini, Individually and t/a Cupcake Patrol (D2000-0996): ‘As the Internet extends far beyond the Anglophone world, a more difficult question arises as to whether non-English speaking users of the Internet would be confused into believing that such a site is owned and/or controlled by the Complainant. Because the word ‘sucks’ is a slang word with which all English speakers may not be familiar, this Administrative Panel concludes that there may well be circumstances where Internet users are not aware of the abusive connotations of the word and consequently associate the domain name with the owner of the trademark'; National Westminster Bank PLC v. Purge I.T. and Purge I.T. Ltd (D2000 – 0636); Caixa d'Estalvis y Pensions de Barcelona (“La Caixa”) v. Namezero.com (D2001-0360): ‘Although converting “c”s into “k”s is a way of expressing feelings similar to those expressed by the word “sucks” in English, this practice is part of a countercultural Latin jargon and is unlikely to be understood by most Internet users throughout the world. They would not understand LAKAIXA as a political parody of LA CAIXA, but as something phonetically identical, and graphically confusingly similar, with respect to Complainant's world-famous trademark LA CAIXA.'Google Scholar

¹² Lockheed Martin Corporation v. Dan Parisi (D2000-1015); McLane Company, Inc. v. Fred Craig (D2000-1455).Google Scholar

¹³ Cf., for example, Thorsten Bettinger, ICANN's Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy, CR 234 (2000), at 235.Google Scholar

¹⁴ Cf., Huntington, Samuel P., Transnational Organizations in World Politics, 25 WORLD POLITICS 333 (1973), at 344: ‘Transnationalism is the American way of expansion'.Google Scholar

¹⁵ Cf., for the general discussion of the application of the ‘state action doctrine’ to the Internet: Paul S. Berman, Cyberspace and the State Action Debate: The Cultural Value of Applying Constitutional Norms to “Private” Regulation, 71 U. COL. L. REV. 1263 (2000); Irene Dmitrieva, Will Tomorrow Be Free? Application of State Action Doctrine to Private Internet Providers, in THE INTERNET UPHEAVAL 3 (Vogelsang/Compaine eds., 2000); Steven Gey, Reopening the Public Forum – From Sidewalks to Cyberspace, 58 OHIO ST. L. J. 1535 (1998); David Goldstone, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Cyber Forum: Public vs. Private in Cyberspace Speech, 69 U. COLOR. L. REV. 1 (1998); Noah D. Zatz, Sidewalks in Cyberspace: Making Space for Public Forums in the Electronic Enviroment, 12 HARV. J. L. & TECH. 149 (1998). By contrast, the problem of the horizontal effect of fundamental rights within the Internet seems to have troubled German doctrinal thought very little at all, cf., the supplementary remarks of Karl H. Ladeur, Ausschluss von Teilnehmern an Diskussionsforen im Internet, MMR 787 (2001); with regard to the blocking of content by the host provider, cf., Rufus Pichler, Meinungsfreiheit, Kunstfreiheit und neue Medien: Zwischen interessengerechter Auflösung von Rechtsgutkollisionen und “Zensur”, AfP 429 (1999), at 433; and Franz C. Mayer, Recht und Cyberspace, NJW 1782 (1996), at 1787.Google Scholar

¹⁶ § 15 (a) ICANN Rules: ‘A Panel shall decide a complaint on the basis of the statements and documents submitted and in accordance with the Policy, these Rules and any rules and principles of law that it deems applicable.'Google Scholar

¹⁷ On the problem of the law applicable to trademark conflicts in the Internet, cf., Annette Kur, Territorialität versus Globalität – Kennzeichenkonflikte im Internet, WRB 935 (2000).Google Scholar

¹⁸ Frankfurter Allgemeinen Zeitung, 28.10.2002, at 46: ‘.com, .de oder.fr?'.Google Scholar

¹⁹ Cf., on the development of material norms in private international law see generally Gerhard Kegel/Klaus Schurig, INTERNATIONALES PRIVATRECHT, (6^th Edition), First Section, §8 III4, Materiell-privatrechtliche Lösungen im IPR, at 269; E. Steindorff, SACHNORMEN IM INTERNATIONALEN PRIVATRECHT (1958).Google Scholar

²⁰ Cf., on this question, Michael Froomkin, Semi-Private International Rulemaking: Lessons Learned from the WIPO Domain Name Process, in REGULATING THE GLOBAL INFORMATION SOCIETY 211 (C. T. Mardsen ed. 2000); see with regard to ICANN, Jonathan Zittrain, ICANN: Between the Public and the Private, Comments Before Congress, 14 BERKLEY TECH. L. J. (1999), available at http://www.law.berkeley.edu/journals/btlj/articles/vol14/Zittrain/html/reader.html.Google Scholar

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²² Christoph Graber and Gunther Teubner attempt such an approach in the private context of artistic freedom, cf., Art and Money: Constitutional Rights in the Private Sphere, OXFORD JOURNAL OF LEGAL STUDIES 61 (1998). Cf., for the English debate on fundamental rights in the private context, Andrew Clapham, HUMAN RIGHTS IN THE PRIVATE SPHERE (1996); Hugh Collins, JUSTICE IN DISMISSAL (1992); Joseph Raz, THE MORALITY OF FREEDOM (1986); W. N. Nelson, Human Rights and Human Obligations, 23 NOMOS 281 (1981).Google Scholar

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²⁴ Debate on the code almost has a natural law quality about it, cf., Emile Brousseau, Internet Regulation: Does Self Regulation Require an Institutional Framework, Conference Paper (2001), available at http://www.isnie.org/ISNIE01/Papers01/broussaeu.pdf; Lawrence Lessig, CODE AND OTHER LAWS OF CYBERSPACE (1999); Joel R. Reidenberg, Lex Informatica: The Formulation of Information Policy Rules Through Technology, 76 TEXAS L. REV. 553 (1998), available at http://reidenberg.home.sprynet.com/lex_informatica.pdf; James Boyle, Foucault in Cyberspace: Surveillance, Sovereignty, and Hard-Wired Censors, (1997), available at www.wcl.american.edu/pub/faculty/boyle/foucault.htm.Google Scholar

²⁵ Seen from this instrumentalist point of view, the differences beween the two protagonists of the Internet Constitution are few indeed: Lawrence Lessig, see supra, note 24; David Post, Anarchy, State, and the Internet: An Essay on Law-Making in Cyberspace, J. ONLINE L. (1995), available at http://warthog.cc.wm.edu/law/publications/jol/post.html.Google Scholar

²⁶ Cf, for this legal functional triad, cf., Niklas Luhmann, DAS RECHT DER GESELLSCHAFT (1993), at 156.Google Scholar

²⁷ Cf., Yochai Benkler, Looking Trough the Glass: Alice and the Constitutional Foundations of the Public Domain, Conference Paper (2001), available at http://james-boyle.com; Lawrence Lessig, THE FUTURE OF IDEAS (2001), at 13.Google Scholar

²⁸ Cf., Donahey, Scott M., Divergence in the UDRP and the Need for Appellate Review, (2002), available at http://udrplaw.net/DonaheyPaper.htm.Google Scholar

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³⁰ Froomkin, Michael A., ICANN's Uniform Dispute Resolution Policy – Causes and (Partial) Cures, BROOKLIN L. REV. 637 (2002), at 640.Google Scholar

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³² See Blackman, Keith, supra note 29.Google Scholar

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³⁶ For an informative discussion of the theoretical debates on the lex mercatoria and its legal quality, cf., Peer Zumbansen, Piercing the Legal Veil: Commercial Arbitration and Transnational Law, 8 EUR. L. J. 400 (2002); Klaus P. Berger, The Law Merchant and the New Market Place: A 21^st Century View of Transnational Commercial Law, INTER'L ARB. L. REV. 91 (2000).Google Scholar

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³⁸ Cf., for the relevant suggestions of Gralf P. Calliess, note 37, at 201.Google Scholar

³⁹ Despite high degrees of inconstency between the decisions of ICANN-Panels, we can identify the emergence of a global ‘common law’ in relation to the abusive registration of domain names, cf., Robert Badgley, Internet Domain Names and ICANN Arbitration: The Emerging “Law” of Domain Name Custody Disputes, 5 TEXAS REV. OF LAW AND POLITICS 343 (2001).Google Scholar

⁴⁰ Cf., on this point, the suggestion of Scott M. Donahey, supra note 28.Google Scholar

⁴¹ Cf., for the history of the establishment of ICANN and its relationship with the American Government, cf, Mueller, Milton, supra note 29.Google Scholar

⁴² With a particular emphasis upon the status of ICANN as a ‘Global Regulatory Regime', cf., the analyses of Dirk Lehmkuhl, The Resolution of Domain Names vs. Trademark Conflicts: A Case Study on regulation Beyond the Nation State, and Related Problems, ZEITSCHRIFT FÜR RECHTSSOZIOLOGIE 61 (2002), at 71; Milton Mueller, supra note 29, at 211; Christian Walter, Constitutionalizing (Inter)national Governance – Possibilities for and Limits to the Development of an International Constitutional Law, 44 GERMAN YEARBOOK OF INTERNATIONAL LAW 171 (2001), at 186.Google Scholar

⁴³ Cf., Gunther Teubner (2003), supra note 23.Google Scholar

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⁴⁶ Bundesrepublik Deutschland (Federal Republic of Germany) v. RJG Engineering Inc. Case (D2001-1401); Bundesrepublik Deutschland (Republic of Germany) v. RJG Engineering Inc./Gerhard Lauck (D2002-0110).Google Scholar

⁴⁷ Empirical studies by social scientists such as Michael Geist, in particular, have kindled a lively debate on the decisional practice of ICANN-Panels, Michael Geist, Fair.com? An Examination of the Allegations of Systemic Unfairness in ICANN UDRP, (August 2001), available at http://aix1u0ttawy.ca/~geist/.Google Scholar