Reconsideration Request 01-7
Statement Concerning Request for Stay
Date: 16 December 2001

Statement Concerning Request for Stay

On 4 December 2001 Edward Hasbrouck submitted Reconsideration Request 01-7 regarding the .aero TLD Sponsorship Agreement. The request seeks a temporary stay as follows:

I request that ICANN's President and staff be stayed from signing any agreement or making any recommendation to the U.S. Department of Commerce or NTIA with respect to SITA or .aero, until this request for reconsideration has been acted on by the Reconsideration Committee and the Board.

Mr. Hasbrouck has also requested ICANN's President, Stuart Lynn, to refrain from signing the .aero agreement until the Reconsideration Committee has considered the request for stay.

Reconsideration Request 01-7 follows two messages by Mr. Hasbrouck to the members of the ICANN Board requesting that they object to the signing of the .aero TLD Sponsorship Agreement under the seven-day last-call procedure established for the agreement by Board resolutions 01.84 and 01.85, which was commenced by completion of posting of all parts of the agreement on 20 November 2001. No Director objected to the signing of the agreement as posted within the seven days, and under resolution 01.85 the "President [became] authorized to sign the posted agreements for .aero . . . after the conclusion of . . . seven days," or on 28 November 2001.

A review of the Reconsideration Request indicates that, although there is some elaboration of Mr. Hasbrouck's communications with the .aero Sponsor, there are no new material grounds for Mr. Hasbrouck's objections that were not already addressed in his original two messages and that were not available to and considered by Board members during the seven-day last-call procedure.

Dr. Lynn has requested the Committee's guidance on how to proceed in view of Mr. Hasbrouck's request that he refrain from signing the .aero agreement. In response, the Reconsideration Committee has consulted on the matter. (Director Amadeu Abril i Abril has recused himself from this case in order to avoid any conflict of interest, or any perceived conflict of interest, in view of his affiliation with CORE, a possible supplier to the .aero Sponsor.) In that consultation, no member of the Committee has expressed the view that it is appropriate to stay the completion of the agreement with the .aero Sponsor. I have therefore advised Dr. Lynn that there is no reason to delay moving forward with the agreement.

Hans Kraaijenbrink
Chair, Reconsideration Committee