Olympics and International Sports Law Research Guide

What does an athlete do when she is not allowed to take the start of the Olympic finals because of a positive doping test or he is not allowed to compete at the Games for reasons of nationality? He or she brings the case before the ad hoc Division of the Court of Arbitration for Sport, an arbitral body first created on the occasion of the 1996 Games in Atlanta, which is present on site and resolves all disputes within 24 hours. Written by its former President, who teaches and practices international dispute resolution in Geneva, Switzerland, this book tells the story of the ad hoc Division from Atlanta to Sydney over Nagano. It gives an account of the cases resolved, discusses the Arbitration Rules, and explains the practical operation of the Division. It also reviews all the main arbitration law issues which the Division faces, including jurisdiction, arbitrability, due process, the choice and proof of the applicable substantive rules, the remedies against the award, as well as some sports law issues, such as field of play rules or strict liability for doping offenses. The wealth of information it contains makes this book an indispensable tool for all involved or interested in sports law and dispute resolution. Many of its developments go beyond the sports context and are of general interest to all arbitration practitioners.

Mega-sporting events (MSEs), like the FIFA World Cup or the Olympic and Paralympic Games, are prestigious international events that attract attention in every part of the world. In the last two decades, it became increasingly clear that such events can lead to adverse human rights implications. Notable examples include cases of forced evictions of local communities, violent repressions of protests around MSE venues, and the exploitation of both migrant and non-migrant workers on event-related construction sites. This book discusses how delivering an MSE can impact a whole range of human rights, highlighting the challenges in dealing with cases of MSE-related human rights abuses and establishing legal responsibility. More specifically, it analyses the shortcomings of international human rights law and international law of responsibility in dealing with the complex governance system of MSEs, which is based on the involvement of a mix of national, international, private and public actors and blurs the lines of responsibility and accountability. As a result, the identification of responsible actors, the establishment of their responsibility, and the access to remedies for those affected are significantly complicated. To address these challenges, this book proposes a shared responsibility approach to the cases at hand, suggesting that actors involved in MSE delivery would share legal responsibility to the extent that they made a relevant contribution to an outcome that presents a human rights violation, and explores how this approach can work in theory and practice.

The Court of Arbitration for Sport has come a long way since the idea of establishing it was first mentioned by Juan Antonio Samaranch, the former IOC President, who foresaw the need for a specialised body to resolve sporting disputes outside the normal court system. His aim was for CAS to become the supreme court of world sport; an aim which, this book demonstrates, has been largely fulfilled. It has, in the words of the Swiss Federal Tribunal in a landmark judgement of 27 May 2003, ‘built up the trust of the sporting world [and is] ... now widely recognised ... [as] ... one of the principal mainstays of organised sport.’ This ‘jubilee’ book—after twenty years of operations—charts the history, including significant milestones, and achievements of the CAS.

An increasing number of sport disputes are being resolved by way of arbitration. This is the first book to critically examine the processes and benefits of sport specific arbitration as compared to litigation. The book explores, in depth, the development of alternative dispute resolutions in sports, paying particular attention to high-profile institutions such as the Court of Arbitration for Sport, the FIFA Football Dispute Resolution Panel and important national-level bodies, and their relationship with national and international-level actors such as the IOC, WADA and the European Union. It also examines in detail the legal frameworks within which sports arbitration systems operate, considers their similarities with other arbitral bodies and considers the extent to which ADR in sport can be seen as a consequence of, and perhaps a solution to, the ‘juridification’ of sports. Offering a theoretical basis with which to understand the relationship between arbitration and litigation, as well as providing guidance on key contemporary issues and best practice, this book is important reading for students, researchers and practitioners working in sports law, sports management and administration, sports politics, sports ethics, and international organisation.

Drawing on multi-disciplinary perspectives from law, economics, sport management and politics, and including case studies about the European Super League (ESL) and the International Skating Union, the book explores key themes in contemporary sport, including governance, ownership and control; the European sport model; the regulatory autonomy of sports organisations; and the relationship between public policy, the law and sport. This is important reading for any advanced student, researcher, policy-maker or practitioner with an interest in sport management, sport law, European law or European politics.

This book is a comprehensive, practice-oriented guide to the evidentiary regime under the 2015 World Anti-Doping Code (WADC) including the functioning of the Athlete Biological Passport. It is the first to show how the interplay between science and law affects the collection and evaluation of evidence in anti-doping, and how paradigm shifts in anti-doping strategies may modify evidentiary assumptions implicit to the WADC regime. Unique in its dealing with the subtleties of anti-doping science and legal implications, the book gives lawyers involved in anti-doping the keys to a better understanding of the science underlying the WADC regime, while providing anti-doping scientists with the first reference material to understand the legal framework in which their activities are embedded. The emphasis of the book is on international doping cases and it relies predominantly on CAS awards published up to Spring 2015. Written by an experienced Swiss lawyer it provides an insight into the Swiss legal system and its importance for the legal practice in doping matters.

The law relating to anti-doping changes rapidly. The World Anti-Doping Code was first adopted in 2003 to provide a common set of anti-doping rules applicable across all sport worldwide. The Code has evolved and changed significantly through two major processes of review. This third edition provides essential guidance and commentary on the 2015 Code which replaces the 2009 Code. The 2015 Code contains many significant changes in the core Articles of the Code, particularly in the regime on sanctions for anti-doping rule violations, and in the amended International Standards. The text outlines how the current law has developed from anti-doping rules and principles in operation before the Code and explains the central role of the Court of Arbitration for Sport in this development and in applying the current Code. This third edition will be an important single resource for any reader working or studying in the field.

This Handbook presents a comprehensive collection of essays by leading scholars and practitioners in the burgeoning field of international sports law. The authors address significant legal issues on two gradually converging tracks: the mainstream institutional framework of the law, primarily the International Olympic Committee, international sports federations, regional and national sports authority, and the Court of Arbitration for Sport; and the commercial sports industry. Topics include the institutional structure; fundamental issues, legal principles and decisions within those institutions; mediation, arbitration and litigation of disputes; doping, gambling and the expanding use of technology in competition; athlete eligibility requirements; discrimination; and protection of athletes. The book also covers a broad range of commercial issues related to competition law and labor markets; media, image, and intellectual property rights; event sponsorships; and players' agents. Comparative analyses of young sports models and practices in North America, Europe and elsewhere supplement the general theme of international sports law.

The Olympic Games is unquestionably the largest and most important sporting event in the world. Yet who exactly is accountable for its successes and failures? This book examines the legitimacy and accountability of the International Olympic Committee (IOC). This non-governmental organisation wields extraordinary power, but there is no democratic basis for its authority. This study questions the supremacy of the IOC, arguing that there is a significant accountability deficit. Investigating the conduct of the IOC from an international legal perspective, the book moves beyond a critique of the IOC to explore potential avenues for reform, means of improving democratic procedures and increasing accountability. If the Olympics are to continue to be our most celebrated sporting event, those who organise them must be answerable to the citizens that they can potentially harm as well as benefit. Full of original insights into the inner workings of the IOC, this book is essential reading for all those interested in the Olympics, sport policy, sport management, sport mega-events, and the law.

The second edition of International Sports Law introduces many new topics, including the human rights of athletes, the use of instant replay cameras and computers to resolve disputes during competition, corruption in the sports arena, the emerging lex sportiva derived from arbitral awards, ambush marketing and other commercial issues. Commentary on the international legal framework, European regional law, and doping is substantially enlarged and the book features in-depth case studies of recent dispute resolution.

This book, written by an expert in the field, covers some of the following issues, namely high-profile WADA cases such as that of Maria Sharapova, the Bosman ruling, decisions by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), and footballers employment contracts and transfers for enormous amounts. These issues have led to sport no longer being confined to the back pages of traditional media such as newspapers, but increasingly finding its way onto the front pages and into new media. Since ancient times sport has been practised but today it is a multi-billion dollar ‘industry’, and Sports Law as a discipline in its own right is developing apace and is increasingly being studied and practiced at all levels of interest and competency. Throughout the book, the reader is referred to articles, publications and other materials that provide further information on the various subjects treated in the text, thus enhancing its value and usefulness. The Law is stated as at 1 January 2017, according to the sources available at that date.

This book is the first academic contribution that deals with international taxation of income sources from sports events. Using an interdisciplinary approach, with in-depth analysis of both sports law and international tax law, it is notably the first academic work to conduct a thorough analysis in the fields of international taxation of eSports, sports betting as well as illegal/unlawful income sources that may be obtained in relation to a sporting event, such as kickback payments. After describing the general methodologies of income tax and VAT from an international standpoint, defining key terms such as ‘eSports’ and ‘bidding procedure’, the book examines in detail the taxation of the services that are rendered and the goods that are sold, thereby the income obtained, in relation to an international sports event from both income tax and VAT perspectives. Also analysed are government funding in the sports sector, along with its taxation modalities, as well as specific tax exemption regulations enacted for the purposes of mega sporting events. Highlighting the absence of an acceptable level of certainty in the field of taxation of international sports events, the work makes pertinent suggestions as to the future of international sporting event taxation law.

The book is an introduction to sports law, in particular International (worldwide) and European (EU) sports law. The chapters are all put in the perspective of the innovative sports law doctrine that is developed and presented in the opening chapter on what sports law is. After a general coverage of the core concept of “sport specificity” (that is whether private sporting rules and regulations can be justified notwithstanding they are not in conformity with public law), the book covers the following specific main themes of International and European Sports Law (capita selecta): comparative sports law; competition law and sport; the collective selling of TV rights; sports betting; Social Dialogue in sport; sport and nationality; professional football transfer rules; anti-doping law in sport; transnational football hooliganism in Europe; international sports boycotts. In this book association football (“soccer”) is the sport that is by far most on the agenda. It is the largest sport in the world and most popular all over the globe. The elite football in Europe is a day-to-day commercialized and professionalized industry, which makes it a perfect subject of study from an EU Law perspective.

This book examines, from a legal perspective, the numerous developments in the rules and institutions of the Olympic Games from Antiquity to the Modern Era. It offers a well-informed and insightful description and explanation of the so-called Lex Olympica. The book analyses the legal and institutional aspects that arise in the Olympic Movement, like its definition, composition and general organisation, its three principal constituents, its three ‘Satellite Organisations’ and its organs. Further it addresses contemporary legal questions and inherent consequences the Olympic Movement encounters, such as eligibility criteria, legal protection of the Olympic symbol, protection of the environment, advertising and ambush marketing, athletes’ freedom of expression and Olympic boycotts. The book also contains a section of Basic Documents and a list of Selected Writings on the Law of the Olympic Games. It is a valuable tool for sports lawyers, sports managers, sports administrators, governmental and sports officials, as well as researchers and academics with an interest in this field.

Olympic Laws: Culture, Values, Tensions is the first book to analyse fully the Olympic legal framework and its application to the IOC and the Olympic Games through a socio-legal lens. It opens up a new window into understanding the Olympic Games, across recent iterations of the Games and on to future Games. The book begins by defining the parameters of the emergent legal sub-fields of Sports Law, lex Olympica and Olympic Law, through the identification of the sources of these Olympic Laws and their underpinning norms. It then uses a series of case studies to demonstrate how lex Olympica has evolved as a means of defending the Olympic Movement from unwanted legal interventions, how Olympic Law has been created to protect the commercial rights vested in the Games, and how the legacies created by this unique category of law have a lasting impact on host cities and beyond. It concludes with a call that the IOC recalibrate its relationships with prospective hosts and the participating athletes by requiring specific adherence to the Fundamental Principles of Olympism.

In 1968, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) implemented sex testing for female athletes at that year's Games. When it became clear that testing regimes failed to delineate a sex divide, the IOC began to test for gender--a shift that allowed the organization to control the very idea of womanhood. Ranging from Cold War tensions to gender anxiety to controversies around doping, Lindsay Parks Pieper explores sex testing in sport from the 1930s to the early 2000s. Pieper examines how the IOC in particular insisted on a misguided binary notion of gender that privileged Western norms. Testing evolved into a tool to identify--and eliminate--athletes the IOC deemed too strong, too fast, or too successful. Pieper shows how this system punished gifted women while hindering the development of women's athletics for decades. She also reveals how the flawed notions behind testing--ideas often sexist, racist, or ridiculous--degraded the very idea of female athleticism.

Sport is increasingly regarded as a powerful tool in international development. In this comprehensive introduction to the area of ‘sport-for-development’, leading researcher Fred Coalter critically evaluates the strengths and weaknesses and successes and failures of sport-for-development policies and programs. Beginning with an outline of the historical development of policies of sport-for-development, this book explores the objectives that remain central to international sport-for-development initiatives, including issues of defining and measuring impacts, the development of self-efficacy and leadership skills, female empowerment, HIV/AIDS awareness and social capital. Drawing on a wealth of fieldwork experience and empirical data from the most extensive monitoring and evaluation project ever undertaken with sport-for-development organisations, this is an unparalleled and fully integrated assessment of theory, policy and practice in international sport-for-development.

This book deals with the legal position of the athlete in doping cases under the law of the regulations of national and international sports federations and how this legal position can be reinforced. According to the rules of the sports organizations applicable to doping offences, where prohibited substances are found in athlete's bodily fluids the athlete in question is strictly liable for a doping offence. In the disciplinary procedure there is no discussion about his guilt and the athlete is not given an opportunity to disprove his guilt. One of the starting points of the European Convention of Human Rights (ECHR) is that suspects are not guilty until their guilt has been proven conclusively based on the law, which includes the right of defence. The author analyzes the nature of doping offences and puts forward arguments in favour of the application of the rights of the defence as laid down in the ECHR in disciplinary doping proceedings. In his argumentation he also addresses the procedural system of sanctions and the practical and economic consequences the sanctions may have for the athlete concerned. As not only the athlete himself, but also sports clubs and sponsors may suffer serious damage from such sanctions, this book on the strict liability principle will be of great interest to practitioners and academics in more than one field of law.

This comprehensive collection of leading articles covers legal issues that have arisen out of international sports competition and its management. These papers trace the burgeoning field of international sports law from its origins about a half-century ago, through the course of complex challenges ranging from political boycotts of competition to doping of athletes, corruption, discrimination, players' rights and commercial influences such as broadcast rights. Within a unique institutional framework of national, international, non-governmental and inter-governmental authority, the emerging regime of public law is of fundamental importance not only to the sports industry and bar but, quite obviously, to a global public. This authoritative collection puts particular emphasis on the central role of the Olympic Movement and affiliated sports federations, the regional mechanism of the European Union and the characteristics of the European and North American sports models.