[ripe-list] RIPE Accountability Task Force Update at RIPE 75

On 19/10/17 09:24, Jim Reid wrote:
> 
>> On 18 Oct 2017, at 23:53, William Sylvester <william.sylvester at addrex.net> wrote:
>  
>> 2. There is no explicit obligation anywhere that the RIPE NCC will adhere to policies developed by the RIPE community. Strictly speaking, the RIPE NCC is accountable to its membership only. Does the community feel that the RIPE NCC should make a declaration or perhaps sign an MoU stating that it will follow RIPE community policies? 
> 
> This is a very, very silly idea. Sorry.
> 
> 1) Who would/could sign that MoU with the NCC? The RIPE community has no legal identity (by design) so it cannot enter into a contract or any other quasi-legal agreement.
> 
> 2) If a declaration like this was somehow legally enforcable, that will not help if RIPE develops policies which are opposed by the NCC membership or not in the membership's best interest. If we ever get into a scenario like that, a declaration or MoU is not going to make it easier to resolve the conflict. I think it'll make reconciliation harder. There would be endless meta-arguments about what the MoU means or intended rather than fixing the underlying problem. Add lawyers to taste.
> 
> 3) Suppose RIPE develops a policy that instructs Axel to hand out €100 banknotes at Centraal  Station until the NCC's reserves are gone. Should he do that just because this hypothetical declaration/MoU obliges him to do it?
> 
> There's probably no need to formalise the NCC-RIPE relationship with anything more than a sentence saying "The NCC (Board) will take account of the policies developed by RIPE whenever it deploys and operates services". ie The NCC listens to RIPE but isn't compelled to obey no matter what.

Jim beat me to it (they obviously get up earlier North of The Border).

The NCC Board does of course take account of policies, and also comments
on them as part of the evaluation process that the NCC does during
policy development. In all cases up until now we have instructed the NCC
to follow policy. However, as board members we have certain fiduciary
duties which cannot be overridden by policy. Faced with a situation such
as Jim describes we have two choices: not implement the policy or resign
and hope that someone else agrees to carry the can.

Nigel
Chairman RIPE NCC Board