Book Review: Law and Disorder in Cyberspace, Peter Huber
 

Reviewed by Solveig Singleton*

New York, New York: Oxford University Press, 1997

The subtitle of Peter Huber's Law and Disorder In Cyberspace proudly proclaims the book's main theme: "Abolish the FCC and Let Common Law Rule the Telecosm." Huber proposes a free-market revolution for telephone, broadcasting, cable television, satellite and Internet services--tempered with a few compromises (puzzlingly, he does not seem to view the compromises as such). He would supplant broadcast licensing with private ownership, and do away with price controls and universal service entirely.

How free are the markets that Huber envisions? Not entirely. In Huber's view, antitrust law is the "common law." In Huber's view, even the nightmare of the MFJ decree is preferable to the FCC. The strongest case for Huber's faith in antitrust might be the lack of a politically acceptable alternative. He would not do away with both antitrust and regulators; he believes some intervention is necessary to combat monopoly--particularly, he agrees that interconnection rights are necessary to introduce competition to local phone markets.

The best part of the book is Huber's rather saddening conclusion. We must, he believes, put our trust in a common law "people's constitution," because the Constitution has failed. With respect to telecommunications law, he is correct. The Constitution has done little to check the FCC's growing power and broad discretion over the years. The battle now is to preserve the common law framework that permits innovation to continue, because it will defeat the FCC once and for all.

*Solveig Singleton is the director of Information Studies at the Cato Institute and the Publications Vice Chairperson for the Telecommications & Electronic Media Practice Group.

   

2001 The Federalist Society