Pat Farrell writes in his report on thi NIST GAK meeting:

...

Geoff said that they may want legislation support for protecting against illegal release of keys, failure to release, etc.

Jim Bell Responds:

Pardon me, but since this "key escrow" system was always claimed to be "voluntary," then how can there be any kind of legal penalties associated with "failure to release" those keys?

well, since the subject at hand is Escrow Agent Criteria, "Geoff" is probably talking about the failure of an escrow agent to release a key upon production of "lawful authorization" .... andrew