This talk will not be videotaped.

Food and discussion begin at 12:30 pm. Open to current Princeton faculty, staff, and students. Open to members of the public by invitation only. Please contact Laura Cummings-Abdo at if you are interested in attending a particular lunch.

Internet governance is plural. Internet governance refers to the institutions that produce norms for networked communications. These norms are embodied in protocols, regulations, laws, and international agreements.

To understand Internet governance, it is essential to distinguish between different types of norms and to identify the institutions that produce those norms – or that ought to produce them.

This talk will present a conceptual framework that distinguishes different layers of governance and that allows for the assessment of the legitimacy of specific policies. Examples from the history of the Internet will illustrate cases of more or less legitimate governance.

Bio:

Hans Klein’s research examines the interplay of governance institutions and large technical systems. His work on Internet governance examines the design of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) and the match (and occasional mismatch) between the entity’s authority and its policies. His work on intelligent transportation examines how the institutional structures of the US transportation sector, especially the state-federal division of responsibilities, affect system development and programmatic success.

Klein has a BS in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from Princeton University (1983), an MS in Technology and Policy from MIT (1993), and a PhD in Political Science from MIT (1993). He has also been a visiting scholar at Mines ParisTech (Ecole des mines) and the Hertie School of Governance in Berlin.

He is an alumnus of the Princeton Terrace Club.