[arin-ppml] Draft Policy 2009-1: Transfer Policy (Using the Emergency PDP)

[Leo Bicknell]

In a message written on Thu, Mar 26, 2009 at 03:50:04PM -0800, Bill Woodcock wrote:
> Every single sentence in the NRPM could have a sunset clause, doubling the 
> size of the document and requiring that every part of it be constantly 
> maintained.  Since the public _already has_ the capability to roll back 
> any part of the NRPM at any time, or to override any previously-enacted 
> sunset clause at any time, sunset clauses are no-ops.  

I wasn't sure how far back sunset provisions went, so I turned to
Wikipeida.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunset_clause  It appears
this technique has been used since at least Roman times in public
policy.

In broad terms, sunset provisions can be used for two purposes:

- To reduce future workload on a body where it is expected the item
  will no longer be useful at some point.  Rather than having to waste
  time removing old policy it automatically goes.

- To require a body to re-evaluate an item via the normal debate
  process in the future because the current authors are worried
  the plan is not yet perfect, and/or the situation may change.

I suspect most people who liked the sunset provision were interested
in the second case.  The sunset provision requires public debate
on the effectiveness of the policy if it is to continue.  There is
a long history of such provisions being used with controvercial
policies, several of which are debated in the Wikipedia entry.
Since these debates have many times prompted changes, or not renewing
the policy it is easy to argue that sunset provisions have been
used to produce very useful results.

It is far from a no-op, rather it is a required-op.

-- 
       Leo Bicknell - bicknell at ufp.org - CCIE 3440
        PGP keys at http://www.ufp.org/~bicknell/
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