Lex Sportiva What Is Sports Law

The important theme “What is Sports Law?” was the topic of the international Conference on “The Concept of Lex Sportiva Revisited”, which took place in Jakarta in late 2010. Academics and practitioners are still in debate to agree on this concept as is evident in this book. This book not only contains the worked out contributions of this Conference, but also other related chapters on the subject. It produces a reassessment of the content of Sports Law and its terminology keeping a close eye on the current literature. The book appears in the ASSER International Sports Law Series, under the editorship of Prof. Dr. Robert Siekmann, Dr. Janwillem Soek and Marco van der Harst LL.M.

This book takes a close look at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), challenging existing claims and answering previously unanswered questions, by considering all of its publicly available decisions, both in its entirety as a body of jurisprudence and on a case-by-case level. It also investigates the actors involved in adjudication before the CAS, both the parties that bring disputes before the CAS and the arbitrators that resolve them, and in so doing establish precedents that govern sports generally. While the book relies upon and includes more traditional legal theory and analysis, it combines this with an empirical analysis of a large portion of the CAS's decisions. Hereby it relies upon and relates to the theory of the development of a transnational legal order in sports, the lex sportiva. The publication is targeted at and will benefit those professionally working in or interested in the fields of sports law, arbitration law, transnational law, or empirical legal studies. Johan Lindholm is a Professor of Law at Umeå University in Sweden.

This book is designed to cover the historical development of sports law and addresses the fundamental issues of this field of law, whereas at the same time it analyses some of the most important contemporary legal issues of the field. The book includes 6 parts. Part 1 bears the title “theoretical foundation of sports law”. Part II includes a “sports law theory”. Part III addresses some important contemporary legal issues affecting the organisation and regulation of sport activities. Part IV covers the law of the Olympic Games (lex olympica). Part V analyses the sporting jurisdictional order and its fundamental principles (fair trial), focusing on the international sporting jurisdictional system and the role of the court of arbitration for sport (CAS). Finally, part VI includes the basic elements of the Greek sports law.

Previous edition, 1st, published in 1988.

A comprehensive compendium for the field of transnational law by providing a treatment and presentation in an area that has become one of the most intriguing and innovative developments in legal doctrine, scholarship, theory, as well as practice today. With a considerable contribution from and engagement with social sciences, it features numerous reflections on the relationship between transnational law and legal practice.

Sports law has been growing rapidly over the last few years,regularly making headlines as well as leading to a developing body of law practised by specialist lawyers. This new work, by leading practitioners in the field, is the first to provide a coherent framework for understanding the law in this area, as well as a deep analysis of its key features. The subject can be split into various areas of practice. For example regulatory rules, which cover what can be described as the constitutional aspect of organised sport (this includes the enforcing of regulatory codes and the disciplinary procedures of the various sport governing organisations). Second, broadcasting and marketing which covers the revenue generated by the commercial exploitation of sports clubs, sporting events and players. This area has grown rapidly following the huge infusion of finance from television and corporate sponsorship into a growing number of sports. A third area is player representation, which focuses on the players and includes a broad range of legal issues including club transfers and player contracts (including the famous Bosman ruling), employment advice, personal injury litigation, disciplinary tribunals, discrimination law and remedies in the courts. The audience is solicitors and barristers, legal advisers to sports organisations and clubs, legal advisers to corporations and media companies, academics teaching sports law, sports administrators and law libraries.

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.