China's Sports Law

Abstract

China's first Sports Law' reflects the complexity of a legal system in transition, giving new meaning to the concept of Market-Leninism.2 On one hand, the legislation confirms state control over sports by relying heavily on standard political ideology, centralized policy-making, and traditional administrative practice to help the national government achieve several major objectives. These objectives include gaining greater international prestige from the success of Chinese athletes; creating a structure of dynamic sports organizations; providing reliable sources of funding for sports; and deterring the use of banned drugs in sports activities, bribery of athletes and sports officials, and gambling on sports events. On the other hand, the Sports Law shifts much of the day-to-day control over sports to nongovernmental initiatives. In particular, it has formalized the establishment of market-oriented, western-style sports associations to carry out national sports policy, develop new sources of funding, and impose sanctions against athletes for non-criminal violations of antidoping and other organizational rules. The Sports Law also provides for the establishment of a special body to mediate and arbitrate disputes arising in competitive sports. Although the Chinese normally prefer mediation and arbitration to adjudication, the new dispute resolution body is noteworthy because it will share its authority to resolve disputes with the nongovernmen-