MoU

MoU is the acronym for Memorandum of Understanding. It is a legal document of agreement between two or more parties. It is not completely obligatory like a legal contract is, but it is more powerful and legitimate than the earlier "gentleman’s agreement." A Memorandum of Understanding can also be considered a letter of intent, as a letter of intent expresses the interest for performing certain activities, but it does not legally bind any of the party to perform these activities. On an international platform, the MoU comes under a wide range of treaties; international MoUs must legally register with the United Nations. Although an MoU is categorized as a type of treaty, it can sometimes be kept confidential, unlike other treaties.

Features of the MoU

• Although it is a legal document, an MoU can be formatted without any parliamentary approval. Thus, it can be used to avoid any obligations under the international law.
• MoUs that are kept confidential cannot be legally enforced by any U.N. organizations or any legitimate dispute resolution organization. It can be understood that these documents are not legally binding and it is a no-obligation document under any international law.
• An MoU does not require ratification; hence, it can be put into effect more easily and within a deadline.
• MoUs can be easily altered without prolonged negotiation procedures, as in case of treaties. This feature is useful in multilateral agreements.

MoUs between ICANN and various other organizations

MoU between the U.S. Department of Commerce (DOC) and ICANN

This is also know as the Joint Project Agreement (JPA). This memorandum was formulated on 25th November 1998 with the aim of privatizing the management of Domain Name System (DNS). DOC determined that managing the DNS fell in line with the goals set out by ICANN, according to the policy it had published on 5 June 1998, pledging to perform all functions related to the management and organization of names and addresses on the Internet.

The MoU agreement was aimed to design, develop and test different organizing processes which can be easily modified according to the requirements of rapidly changing internet and its users. This agreement was also aimed to encourage private sector management system in this area of development. This agreement encourages the technical management of the DNS which deals with variety of global and operational diversity of internet users and their requirements. This agreement has been modified seven times till date. The first amendment was made on 10th November 1999, the sixth on 17th September 2003 and the seventh modification was made on 29th September 2006.

Other ICANN-related MoUs

Besides the MoU between ICANN and DOC there are many more Memorandum of Understanding ICANN has partnered in, following is the list of a few MoU between ICANN and various other organizations. Memorandum of Understanding between ICANN and:

• United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), dated 10th December 2009.
• Russian Association of Networks and Services (RANS), dated 25th June 2010.
• Lomonosov Moscow State University Institute for Information, dated 9th April 2008.
• Inter-American Telecommunications Commission of the Organization of American States (CITEL)
• African Telecommunications Union (ATU), dated 14th November 2007.
• United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (UN-ESCWA), dated 22nd August 2007.
• Commonwealth Telecommunications Organization (CTO)
• Pacific Islands Telecommunications Association (PITA), dated 10th May 2007.

Other Relevant MoUs

gTLD MoU CORE MoU