Time bars

["Richard Hill" <rhill@xxxxxxxxx>]

Since ICANN is analogous to a government regulatory body for what concerns
certain aspects of Internet naming and addressing, the IRP is analogous to
an administrative law review/litigation.

Most legal systems have special rules for administrative law, even if the
regular courts handle litigation.  Most distinguish two separate types of
challenges: a challenge to a rule (or policy) versus a challenge to a
specific decision taken under some rule (or policy).  In the US, these two
types of challenges are referred to as a challenge to the rule making versus
a challenge to an adjudication, see for example:

  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_administrative_law 

In administrative law, there are time bar for both types of challenges, see
for example

 
https://www.isba.org/sections/adminlaw/newsletter/2010/07/achecklistforjudic
ialreviewofanadministrativeagencyde 

The fact that there is a time bar for challenges to a policy does not
prevent subsequent challenges to decisions taken under that policy.

The reason for the time bar on challenges to a policy per se is to provide
legal certainty: people are entitled to know what the rules are that they
have to follow.  If a policy can be challenged at any time, then nobody can
know what the rules are.

And, again, the fact that a policy cannot be challenged per se after a
certain time does not prevent challenges to specific decisions taken under
the policy.

Best
Richard Hill